If I can stop one Heart from breaking I shall not live in vain. If I can ease one Life the Aching Or cool one Pain Or help one fainting Robin Unto his Nest again I shall not live in Vain.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- A life is meaningful if it alleviates the suffering of others in any small way.
- In plain terms
- You have not lived in vain if you help others with their pain or grief.
- What can you take from it?
- Find purpose in easing the pain of others.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How can you ease someone's pain today?
- What makes a life worthwhile?
Another view
It implies personal success is solely defined by helping others.
More from Emily Dickinson
We outgrow love, like other things And put it in the Drawer - Till it an Antique fashion shows - Like Costumes Grandsires wore.
Permalink to quote #18 A Grave - is a restricted Breadth - Yet ampler than the Sun - And all the Seas He populates And lands he looks upon To Him who on its small Repose Bestows a si…
Permalink to quote #20 My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun - In Corners - till a Day The Owner passed - identified - And carried Me away - And now We roam in Sovereign Woods - And now W…
Permalink to quote #17
Related quotes
We are here to add what we can to, not to get what we can from, Life.
William OslerWilliam Osler quote #5 This life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.
Swami VivekanandaSwami Vivekananda quote #16 It is high time the ideal of success should be replaced with the ideal of service ... Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein quote #83