Every man is a borrower and a mimic, life is theatrical and literature a quotation.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that humans inherently take from others while trying to navigate life, which is like a performance, heavily influenced by existing works.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote reflects the idea that individuals are not original creators but rather borrowers of thoughts and experiences. He implies that life itself is akin to a play where people imitate others, and literature serves as a compendium of borrowed ideas and expressions. This highlights the interconnectedness of human experiences and the notion that our actions and creations are often influenced by those who came before us, challenging the idea of absolute originality.
In practice
In a speech about creativity, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of drawing inspiration from past works.
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 answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved.
From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines. Going where I list, my own master, total and absolute. Listening to others, and considering well what they say. Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating. Gently but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me.
The banyan tree does not mean awakening, nor does the hill, nor the saint, nor the European couple. The lotus is a symbol of regeneration.
There are things I take sides about, like capital punishment, which it seems to me there is only one side about: it is evil. But there are two or three sides to sexual harassment, and the moment you get into particular cases, there is injustice in every conceivable direction. It's a mess.
A man who gives himself to be a possession of aliens leads a Yahoo life, having bartered his soul to a brute-master. He is not of them. He may stand against them, persuade himself of a mission, batter and twist them into something which they, of their own accord, would not have been.
Virtue is more clearly shown in the performance of fine ACTIONS than in the non-performance of base ones.
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