The first steps in Agriculture, Astronomy, Zoology, (those first steps which the farmer, the hunter, and the sailor take,) teach that nature's dice are always loaded; that in her heaps and rubbish are concealed sure and useful results.
Interpretation
Nature holds hidden potential and valuable outcomes, even in unpredictable circumstances.
Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that early endeavors in various fields such as agriculture, astronomy, and zoology reveal a fundamental truth about nature: it can be deceptive and unpredictable, yet within its chaos lies the potential for significant discoveries and benefits. This perspective encourages us to recognize and seek out the valuable lessons and results that emerge from what may initially seem like randomness or disorder.
In practice
In a speech about environmental conservation, one might say, 'As Ralph Waldo Emerson pointed out, nature's hidden gifts can be found if we take the time to explore her depths.'
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?
We Americans, in most states at least, have not yet experienced a bear-less, eagle-less, cat- less, wolf-less woods. Germany strove for maximum yields of both timber and game and got neither.
It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.
I would prefer to stay up and watch the stars than sleep.
I don't know if anything in nature ever grows exactly the same, but they are always exactly as the way it should be, perfectly itself.
I have often noticed how primate groups in their entirety enter a similar mood. All of a sudden, all of them are playful, hopping around. Or all of them are grumpy. Or all of them are sleepy and settle down. In such cases, the mood contagion serves the function of synchronizing activities.
A fish is more valuable swimming in the sea maintaining the integrity of oceanic eco-systems than it is on anyone's plate.
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