Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins
Interpretation
The presence of others often leads to insincerity in our words and actions.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that while an individual may express genuine thoughts and feelings when alone, the dynamics change upon the arrival of another person. In social situations, external pressures and the desire to be perceived positively can lead to a façade, highlighting the inherent struggle between our true selves and the personas we create in the presence of others.
In practice
In a discussion about authenticity in relationships during a workshop.
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?
In the world I am_x000D_ Always a stranger_x000D_ I do not understand its language_x000D_ It does not understand my silence
Many a professing Christian is a stumbling-block because his worship is divided. On Sunday he worships God; on weekdays God has little or no place in his thoughts.
But Christ's lore and his apostles twelve,_x000D_ He taught and first he followed it himself.
Man must be arched and buttressed from within, else the temple wavers to the dust.
A finite world can support only a finite population; therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.
Racism is a physical experience.
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