Every burned book or house enlightens the world; every suppressed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side.
Interpretation
Censorship and destruction of knowledge ultimately lead to greater understanding and awareness.
In this quote, Emerson highlights the paradox of censorship and destruction—the act of burning books or suppressing words may temporarily silence ideas, but it also sparks curiosity and awareness in society. It suggests that the quest for knowledge and truth is resilient and that the consequences of such actions can have far-reaching effects, prompting individuals to seek out forbidden knowledge and challenge the status quo.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of free speech and expression.
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?
Screwing things up is a virtue. Being correct is never the point. I have an almost fanatically correct assistant, and by the time she re-spells my words and corrects my punctuation, I can't read what I wrote. Being right can stop all the momentum of a very interesting idea.
Whose work is it but your own to open your eyes? But indeed the business of the universe is to make such a fool out of you that you will know yourself for one, and begin to be wise.
We must quit bending the Word to suit our situation. It is we who must be bent to that Word, our necks that must bow under the yoke.
My entire life consisted of musings, calculations, practical works, and trials. Many questions remain unanswered; many works are incomplete or unpublished. The most important things still lie ahead.
To be candid, some people have given positive thinking a bad name. I can't stand to hear some gung-ho individual say that with positive thinking you can just do 'anything.' If you think about that one for a moment, you recognize the absurdity of it.
A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.
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