The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the significance of circles in nature and perception.
Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that the eye is not only a physical organ but also a symbol of perception, creating a 'circle' as it views the world. The horizon represents the limits of that perception, and Emerson points out that this fundamental circular shape is a recurring theme throughout nature, reflecting patterns of continuity and interconnectedness in the natural world.
In practice
This quote could be used in a nature documentary to highlight the beauty of natural patterns.
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 moon was a sharply defined crescent and the sky was perfectly clear. The stars shone with such fierce, contained brilliance that it seemed absurd to call the night dark.
But we still find the world astounding, we can't get enough of it; even as it shrivels, even as its many lights flicker and are extinguished (the tigers, the leopard frogs, the plunging dolphin flukes), flicker and are extinguished, by us, by us, we gaze and gaze. Where do you draw the line, between love and greed? We never did know, we always wanted more. We want to take it all in, for one last time, we want to eat the world with our eyes.
Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light.
The earth says have a place, be what that place_x000D_ requires; hear the sound the birds imply_x000D_ and see as deep as ridges go behind_x000D_ each other.
The Great Work now, as we move into a new millennium, is to carry out the transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a period when humans would be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner.
The message is simple: love and conserve our wildlife.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.