Source identified
“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”
Voice: Fictional character · Portia
A small good action can remain visible precisely because it contrasts with a difficult environment.
Source note: Act 5, Scene 1.
Source identified
“You can make a little Eden of the sphere you occupy.”
The line narrows improvement to the area a person can actually influence, suggesting that better conduct and kinder action can make a local environment more humane.
Source note: Poems of Power, “Wishing,” published 1903; Project Gutenberg #6667. The surrounding stanzas urge personal action when wishing for a better, wiser or happier world.
Source identified
“The purpose of life is unquestionably unfoldment, growth, advancement”
Trine states his view of purpose directly: life should continue to develop rather than settle into mental or moral stagnation.
Source note: The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit; Project Gutenberg #28163. The surrounding text describes evolution from “lower” to “higher” in spiritual terms; this is Trine’s philosophical-religious position, not a scientific law of human development.
Source identified
“It had need of me, or I would not be—I am here to strengthen the plan.”
The speaker interprets existence as evidence of a role to play, turning the question of why one is here into a claim of usefulness and participation.
Source note: Poems of Power, “I Am,” published 1903; Project Gutenberg #6667. The poem is explicitly spiritual and metaphysical, so the line remains poetic purpose language rather than proof of a predetermined cosmic assignment.
Source identified
“I know the goal to high achievement lies through the dull pathway of self-conquest first”
Achievement is pictured as beginning with less glamorous inward work—self-command, small duties and repeated effort—before larger results become possible.
Source note: Poems of Progress and New Thought Pastels, “Time’s Gaze,” represented 1913 edition; Project Gutenberg #3228. This is poetic moral counsel, not a universal formula for achievement.
Source identified
“To err is human; to forgive, divine.”
Error is treated as ordinary human limitation, while forgiveness requires an additional act of generosity.
Source note: An Essay on Criticism, Part II; Pope warns that shallow learning can produce premature confidence before deeper study tempers judgment.