Daily Inspiration Quote by Grantland Rice

Rice frames kindness as an abundant natural resource and then indicts us for acting like it is scarce. The line turns on a neat reversal: the world isn’t failing us; our perception is. “No dearth of kindness” reads like the sober voice of a columnist who’s seen enough cynicism to know it sells, but also enough decency to know it’s real. The sting arrives in the second clause, where “blindness” isn’t innocence but a chosen misreading of reality, the way people default to suspicion, grievance, or self-protective hardness.

The image of “gather[ing] thorns for flowers” does double work. It suggests we actively collect pain - not merely step on it. That verb, “gather,” implies preference, habit, even identity-making. We curate slights, hoard disappointments, build a bouquet out of injuries because it fits the story we’re already telling: that the world is harsh, that people are unreliable, that kindness is naive. Rice’s metaphor also nods to journalism’s daily dilemma: attention gravitates toward the prickly and alarming. Thorns are click-worthy. Flowers require noticing.

Context matters. Writing in the early 20th century, with war, economic churn, and mass media accelerating public mood swings, Rice’s optimism isn’t sentimental; it’s corrective. The quote functions like a moral eye exam. It asks readers to consider how much of their bleakness is evidence-based and how much is self-inflicted misfocus. Kindness is present, Rice suggests, but it doesn’t announce itself. It has to be looked for - and, crucially, believed in enough to be recognized.