I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I can find them, but I seldom use them.
Interpretation
Friendship is valued for its availability, even if not frequently utilized.
In this quote, Emerson uses a comparison between friends and books to express the nature of his relationships. He appreciates having friends nearby and easily accessible but acknowledges that he does not engage with them often, highlighting a tendency to take friendships for granted while still valuing their presence in his life.
In practice
In a speech about maintaining connections, one could quote Emerson to emphasize the importance of having friends nearby.
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?
What is the most appropriate thing to say to a friend who was about to die. He answered:βtell your friend that in his death, a part of you dies and goes with him. Whenever he goes, you also g. He will not be alone".
Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives.
In our friendships we have to be wise that we choose godly people to be our friends. Somebody might say, well does that mean that you should never have a lost person as your friend? No, I wouldn't say that. But you can't have the same intimacy with a lost person that you can with a godly person in whom the Holy Spirit is living.
You can make more friends in two months by becoming really interested in other people, than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
You win the victory when you yield to friends.
How delightful to find a friend in everyone.
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