Coal is a portable climate. It carries the heat of the tropics to Labrador and the polar circle; and it is the means of transporting itself whithersoever it is wanted. Watt and Stephenson whispered in the ear of mankind their secret, that a half-ounce of coal will draw two tons a mile, and coal carries coal, by rail and by boat, to make Canada as warm as Calcutta, and with its comfort brings its industrial power.
Interpretation
Coal serves as a powerful means of transporting heat and energy across vast distances, playing a crucial role in industrial development.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson highlights the transformative power of coal, illustrating how it enables the transportation of heat from tropical regions to colder areas, thus altering climates and fostering industrial growth. This powerful resource not only conveys warmth but also enhances productivity and comfort, showcasing its significance in enabling civilization to thrive in diverse environments.
In practice
In a speech on energy resources, I might say, 'As Emerson noted, coal is a portable climate, enabling us to create warmth and foster industry in even the coldest regions.'
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?
We must never make experiments to confirm our ideas, but simply to control them.
If you just have a single problem to solve, then fine, go ahead and use a neural network. But if you want to do science and understand how to choose architectures, or how to go to a new problem, you have to understand what different architectures can and cannot do.
For anyone inclined to caricature environmental history as 'environmental determinism,' the contrasting histories of the Dominican Republic and Haiti provide a useful antidote. Yes, environmental problems do constrain human societies, but the societies' responses also make a difference.
The laws of Congress and the laws of physics have grown increasingly divergent, and the laws of physics are not likely to yield.
That's one of the ironies of our time: Right when we're on the edge of serious improvements in health care, we're also cooking the planet.
Science is bound, by the everlasting vow of honour, to face fearlessly every problem which can be fairly presented to it.
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