Every man's task [his 'great dream' and impassioned life-goal] is his life preserver.
Interpretation
A person's life goal serves as their source of strength and survival.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the importance of having a significant purpose or dream in life. It suggests that pursuing one's passions and goals can provide the motivation and resilience needed to navigate life's challenges, much like a life preserver that keeps a person afloat in difficult waters.
In practice
During a motivational speech about pursuing dreams.
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?
As you begin to take action toward the fulfillment of your goals and dreams, you must realize that not every action will be perfect. Not every action will produce the desired result. Not every action will work. Making mistakes, getting it almost right, and experimenting to see what happens are all part of the process of eventually getting it right.
Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.
That walk around the block, that fresh air, is going to help you work more quickly and effectively when you get back.
You don't have enough talent to win on talent alone.
There's no traffic jam on the extra mile.
Sometimes it is better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.
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