What is the foundation of that interest all men feel in Greek history, letters, art, and poetry, in all its periods, from the Heroic or Homeric age down to the domestic life of the Athenians and Spartans, four or five centuries later? What but this, that every man passes personally through a Grecian period.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the universal relevance of Greek history and culture to individual human experiences.
Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects on the enduring interest that every person has in Greek history and culture, suggesting that this fascination arises from the personal connection each individual feels to the Grecian era. He proposes that everyone passes through their own 'Grecian period'—a time when the ideals, achievements, and explorations of ancient Greece resonate with their own life experiences, thereby illustrating the timeless influence of Greek civilization on humanity.
In practice
During a lecture on the influences of ancient civilizations on modern society.
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?
For benefits return benefits; for injuries return justice without any admixture of revenge.
About Superman and Batman: the former is how America views itself, the latter, darker character is how the rest of the world views America.
Evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect, excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance.
Somewhere in the archives of crudest instinct is recorded the truth that it is better to be endangered and free than captive and comfortable.
The blackness he woke to on those nights was sightless and impenetrable. A blackness to hurt your ears with listening. Often he had to get up. No sound but the wind in the trees. He rose and stood tottering in that cold autistic dark with his arms outheld for balance while the vestibular calculations in his skull cranked out their reckonings.
A man making the confession of any creed worth ten minutes' intelligent talk, is always a man who gains something and gives up something. So long as he does both he can create: for he is making an outline and a shape.
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