Only as far as the masters of the world have called in nature to their aid, can they reach the height of magnificence. This is the meaning of their hanging-gardens, villas, garden-houses, islands, parks, and preserves.
Interpretation
Human magnificence is achieved by harnessing the power of nature.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes that the greatness and splendor achieved by humanity are directly linked to our ability to work in harmony with nature. He illustrates this connection by referencing grand creations, like hanging gardens and parks, which serve as examples of how human ingenuity, when united with the natural world, can create beauty and magnificence.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about sustainable living and the importance of preserving nature.
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?
I'm not against extracting a modest amount of wildlife out of the ocean for human consumption, but I am really concerned about the large-scale industrial fishing that engages in destructive practices like trawling and longlining.
I love to smell flowers in the dark," she said. "You get hold of their soul then.
Animals are something invented by plants to move seeds around. An extremely yang solution to a peculiar problem which they faced.
Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.
Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature. Necessity is the theme and inventress of nature, her curb and her eternal law.
The morning pouring everywhere, its golden glory on the air.
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