Cities give us collision. 'Tis said, London and New York take the nonsense out of a man.
Interpretation
Cities expose individuals to diverse ideas and experiences, stripping away pretense.
In this quote, Emerson suggests that urban environments like London and New York create an environment where people encounter a variety of perspectives and experiences that challenge their assumptions and social facades. The 'collision' of ideas and cultures in these cities promotes authenticity and a more genuine understanding of oneself, as the hustle and bustle of city life forces individuals to confront their biases and superficialities.
In practice
In a speech about urban life, one could highlight how cities like New York and London promote personal growth through conflict and diversity.
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?
You must be a lotus, unfolding its petals when the sun rises in the sky, unaffected by the slush where it is born or even the water which sustains it!
Either things happen for a reason, or they happen for no reason at all. Either one's life is a thread in a glorious tapestry or humanity is just a hopelessly tangled knot.
What we need to realize is that there can be, shall we say, a movement, a stirring among people, which can be organically designed instead of politically designed.
Never mind that the story had turned out to be lies and foolishness—there was always folks stupid enough to say, Where there's smoke there's fire, when the saying should have been, Where there's scandalous lies there's always malicious believers and spreaders-around, regardless of evidence.
Little fish risking everything for a piece of godhood...and not knowing heaven from hell, even when they find it.
We know no document is perfect, but when we amend the Constitution, it would be to expand rights, not to take away rights from decent, loyal Americans. This great Constitution of ours should never be used to make a group of Americans permanent second-class citizens.
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