What do you make of this?

[Dna8]

I'm currently reading a biography of Lovecraft (I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft, Joshi) and happened upon this extract from one of Lovecraft's letters:

But later I realized that even success is empty. Failure though I be, I shall reach a level with the greatest - and the smallest - in the damp earth or on the funeral pyre. And I saw that in the interim trivialities are not to be despised. Success is a relative thing - and the victory of a boy at marbles is equal to the victory of an Octavius at Actium when measured by the scale of cosmic infinity... and he who is kind, helpful, and patient with his fellow sufferers, adds as truly to the world's combined fund of tranquility as he who, with greater endowments, promotes the birth of empires, or advances the knowledge of civilization and mankind.

[Mortimer]

Sounds good. I agree with it.

[Celestia]

You learn sympathy, compassion and humility through your failures which success can not teach. And in return you help and support others which creates more success.
Nice excerpt.

[Dna8]

My fav bit:

...and the victory of a boy at marbles is equal to the victory of an Octavius at Actium when measured by the scale of cosmic infinity.

[Harley]

You ever handle an old school video cam where the W and T are so sensitive that the slightest of touches will have you looking like a conspiracy theorist lost in a pixelated blue sky, or at the very least, zooming in on your aunt Suzie’s nose when she’s trying to ladle some Sunday dinner gravy on your cousin Mark’s plate?

It makes me wonder what the world’s combined funds of tranquility are being spent on.

[KuriousKatKommittee]

Success is a relative thing - and the victory of a boy at marbles is equal to the victory of an Octavius at Actium when measured by the scale of cosmic infinity... and he who is kind, helpful, and patient with his fellow sufferers, adds as truly to the world's combined fund of tranquility as he who, with greater endowments, promotes the birth of empires, or advances the knowledge of civilization and mankind.

Translated: "All ingredients, big and small, are important :)"

And I, for one, hole-hardly agree. Let us all sit around in a hobo bongo drum circle either in Vancouver or L.A. and pass around this phat hepatitis-laced blunt. Succees? Never heard of her. Tattoo? "Live Laugh Love" on my ankle. Kids? 10. Victories? Grabbed the last Great Value toilet paper out of this equally trashy bitch's shopping cart, like an Octavius at Actium.

[smurph]

Hella run-on sentence.... but I think anyone who has reached a moderate level of spiritual maturity will recognize this as common sense.

[Dna8]

What I get from the passage is something like:

Given the very (intense, borderline inconceivable) scale of Time and Space.. Alexander the Great Vs Alcoholic, Unemployed Dole Bludger, while apparently an acute contrast in the context of our species and our planet and our general sense of and feel for things.. is in fact, no contrast at all: Alexander and Alcoholic Unemployed Dole Bludger occupy the EXACT same subset (according to all possible measures/standards/perspectives/angles), so to phrase it.. in the context of the 100-200 (rough estimate) billion galaxies in the universe (i.e. in the context of eternity and infinity).

[Dna8]

Anywho, I thought that marbles Vs Actium was neat.