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?
The phrase, 'You must die before you die,' is found in most of the world religions. If you don't learn how to die early, you spend the rest of your life avoiding failure. When you can free your True Self, the whole spiritual life opens up.
You can act truthfully or you can lie. You can reveal things about yourself or you can hide. Therefore, the audience recognizes something about themselves or they don't -- You hope they don't leave the theatre thinking that was nice...now where's the cab?'
When we look for things there is nothing but mind, and when we look for mind there is nothing but things.
When I was writing The Satanic Verses, if you had asked me about the phenomenon that we all now know as radical Islam, I wouldn't have had much to say. As recently as the mid-1980s, it didn't seem to be a big deal.
Attending church does not necessarily mean living the principles taught in those meeting. You can be active in a church but inactive in its gospel.
There are no moral or intellectual merits. Homer composed the Odyssey; if we postulate an infinite period of time, with infinite circumstances and changes, the impossible thing is not to compose the Odyssey, at least once.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.