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Put God in your debt. Every stroke shall be repaid. The longer the payment is with-held, the better for you; for compound interest on compound interest is the rate and usage of this exchequer.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that acts of kindness or generosity will lead to greater returns over time through the principle of reciprocity.

Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects on the idea that giving, whether in the form of kindness, compassion, or other virtuous actions, creates a debt that the universe or others ultimately repays. He asserts that the longer one waits for this repayment, the more substantial the return will be, highlighting the universal law of reciprocity and the benefits of delayed gratification in moral and ethical behaviors.

Themes

GratitudeReciprocityKindnessCompoundingPaybackVirtue

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about the power of giving back to the community.

More from Ralph Waldo Emerson

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.
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Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
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Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
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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.
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The world belongs to the energetic.
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Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
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