How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.

The saying links “going far” in life not to ambition or status but to moral character expressed as empathy across life’s stages and conditions. It urges gentleness toward the young, compassion for the elderly, solidarity with those who are struggling, and tolerance toward both the weak and the strong—recognizing that strength can also be burdensome or isolating. The final sentence supplies the ethical rationale: time makes everyone cycle through vulnerability, dependence, striving, and (at moments) power. The quote thus frames kindness as enlightened self-recognition and as a practical social ethic: the way one treats others is, in effect, how one treats one’s past and future self.