No true work since the world began was ever wasted; no true life since the world began has ever failed. Oh, understand those two perverted word, failure and success and measure them by the eternal, not the earthly, standard. When after thirty obscure, toilsome, unrecorded years in the shop of the village carpenter, one came forth to be pre-eminently the man of sorrows, to wander from city to city in homeless labors, and to expire in lonely agony upon the shameful cross -- was that a failure.

Summary

This quote suggests that true work and true lives are never wasted or failed, despite how success and failure are commonly perceived. It emphasizes the importance of viewing success and failure in the context of eternity rather than earthly standards. For instance, it presents Jesus' life as an example where he spent thirty years laboring as a carpenter and then proceeded to experience sorrows, homelessness, and a shameful death on the cross. The quote challenges the notion that Jesus' life was a failure and encourages the reevaluation of how we measure success and failure.

Topics