I find the Englishman to be him of all men who stands firmest in his shoes. They have in themselves what they value in their horses, mettle and bottom.
Interpretation
Emerson highlights the steadfastness and resilience of the Englishman, drawing a parallel between people and horses.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the strength of character that he perceives in Englishmen, suggesting that they possess an inherent quality of determination and endurance, akin to the attributes they appreciate in horses. By comparing men to horses, Emerson points out that both have qualities, such as 'mettle' (courage) and 'bottom' (stamina), which are valuable and essential for facing challenges in life.
In practice
During a motivational speech on overcoming challenges, one might quote Emerson to emphasize the importance of resilience.
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?
One hurries through, even though there's time; the past, the continent, is behind; the future is the glowing mouth in the side of the ship; the dim, turbulent alley is too confusedly the present.
Till we can become divine, we must be content to be human, lest in our hurry for change we sink to something lower.
If we care about the average working American, then Wal-Mart matters. A lot.
Where knowledge ends, religion begins.
I want to feel my own nothingness, I want to give myself up in absolute resignation to God, to lie prostrate and passive at His feet, with no other disposition in my heart than that of merging my will into His will, and no other language in my mouth than that of prayer for the perfecting of His strength in my weakness.
Influence is to be measured, not by the extent of surface it covers, but by its kind.
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