Common sense is as rare as genius.
Interpretation
Common sense is uncommon and valuable, much like genius.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson highlights the rarity and importance of common sense, suggesting that it is as valuable as exceptional intelligence. He implies that while genius may be celebrated, it is equally essential to recognize the necessity of practical wisdom in daily life.
In practice
During a debate on decision-making, I would quote Emerson to emphasize the value of practical wisdom.
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 wish I was as sure of anything as he is of everything.
Usage is like oxygen for ideas. That means every moment you're working on something without it being in the public it's actually dying, deprived of the oxygen of the real world.
True deliverance of man is the deliverance from Avidya i.e. ignorance. It is not in destroying anything that is positive and real, for that cannot be possible, but that which is negative, which obstructs our vision of truth.
It is hard to follow one great vision in this world of darkness and of many changing shadows. Among those men get lost.
Some critics are stimulating in that they make you realise how you could do better, and those are valued.
Peace is a rare gift. Peace of mind, peaceful sleeps, and peaceful spirits are all luxuries that few rebels can ever afford.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.