The antidote to this abuse of formal Government, is, the influence of private character, the growth of the Individual.
Interpretation
Individual character and personal growth counteract the negative aspects of government.
Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the importance of personal integrity and the development of the individual as a remedy for the misuse of governmental power. He suggests that strong and virtuous individual character can help to mitigate the adverse effects of formal structures of government, encouraging people to grow and develop themselves in ways that positively influence society.
In practice
In a speech about civic responsibility, you might quote Emerson to emphasize the need for personal integrity.
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.
Few 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?
I am an idealist. I don't know where I'm going but I'm on my way.
Property-owners are the most energetic flag-waggers and patriots in every country, but only so long as they enjoy their possessions: to safeguard those they desert God, King and Country in a twinkling.
Boredom rests upon the nothingness that winds its way through existence; its giddiness, like that which comes from gazing down into an infinite abyss, is infinite.
The Secretary-General must be a determined advocate for the values of tolerance and solidarity - universal values that are shared by cultures and religions around the globe.
The vast majority, who believe in astrology and think that the planets have nothing better to do than form a code that will tell them whether tomorrow is a good day to close a business deal or not, become all the more excited and enthusiastic.
Thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world, and people die of it just as they die of any other disease. Fortunately, in England at any rate, thought is not catching.
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