The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.
Interpretation
Civilization may lead to the downfall of humanity due to its excesses and complexities.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote suggests a pessimistic view of civilization, indicating that the very advancements and complexities that define civilized life could ultimately contribute to humanity's extinction. The focus on progress, technology, and societal structures may create an unsustainable environment that could lead to self-destruction, prompting reflection on the balance between civilization and human survival.
In practice
During a debate on the impact of technology on society, this quote can highlight the potential risks of advancements.
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?
The one thing that the racist can never manage is anything like discrimination: he is indiscriminate by definition.
It should not be expected that what is spiritual can be brought before the eyes, before the senses. It must be experienced inwardly and spiritually.
The more man becomes irradiated with Divinity, the more, not the less, truly he is man.
Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.
Truth will have no gods before it.- The belief in truth begins with the doubt of all truths in which one has previously believed.
People live their lives, constantly surrounded by anxiety. if they live long before dying, they end up in senility, worn out by concerns: a terrible fate! The body is treated in a very harsh fashion. Courageous men are seen by everyone under Heaven as worthy, but this doesn't preserve them from death. I am not sure I know whether this is sensible or not.
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