This was a standard phrase my parents would say as I was growing up. As a child I thought it meant that I had better never tell a lie or I would be in BIG trouble. Now of course, I know that it is a line from Shakespeare:
”This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
-Shakespeare-Hamlet
When I think about it, this was fabulous advice. For if truth is love, and if you are true to yourself..then you will love yourself...when you love yourself you are free to love others...once you love others you are on the path to inner security. As Albert Einstein said...
"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security." : Albert Einstein -
(1879-1955) Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921
3 comments:
That is funny. My parents sometimes yelled in Chinese (which I never learned)and even though I never understood it, I knew it meant I was going to get a spanking if I didn't straighten up.
I once read somewhere that Shakespeare has the right line/quote for every occassion.
And excellent ending to a beautiful phrase.
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