It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
There are always two parties;_x000D_ the establishment and the movement.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the dual nature of society, contrasting established norms with those who seek change.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote emphasizes the inevitable tension between the status quo and those who challenge it. It suggests that in any societal context, there are those who maintain existing structures ('the establishment') and those who strive for transformation and progress ('the movement'). This dynamic is pivotal in understanding social change and human progress, reflecting the perpetual push and pull between tradition and innovation.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about social justice efforts, one might say, 'As Ralph Waldo Emerson pointed out, there are always two parties: the establishment and the movement.'
More from Ralph Waldo Emerson
All quotes βFew people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
Similar quotes
I almost think that hope is for the soul what breathing is for the living organism. Where hope is lacking the soul dries up and withers.
Many errors, of a truth, consist merely in the application of the wrong names of things. For if a man says that the lines which are drawn from the centre of the circle to the circumference are not equal, he understands by the circle, at all events for the time, something else than mathematicians understand by it.
One death is a tragedy, and a million deaths are a statistic.
Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.
We shall find that every effort to realize equality necessitates a sacrifice of liberty.
What did I really think fifteen years ago? A nonbeliever, I felt guilty in the midst of all those believers. And since it seemed to me that they were in the right, I decided to believe, as you might decide to take an aspirin: It can't hurt and you might get better.