As we are, so we associate. The good, by affinity, seek the good; the vile, by affinity, the vile. Thus of their own volition, souls proceed into Heaven, into Hell.
Interpretation
Our associations reflect our character; like-minded individuals gravitate towards each other, shaping our destinies.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that the nature of our associations and relationships is a reflection of our own character. Good individuals tend to seek out and connect with others of similar virtue, while those with negative or vile traits naturally congregate with like-minded individuals. This idea emphasizes the concept that we actively choose our companions based on our own moral and ethical standing, which ultimately influences our path in life, leading us either towards enlightenment or despair.
In practice
During a motivational speech about self-improvement, this quote can be used to illustrate the importance of surrounding oneself with positive influences.
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?
The news and the truth are not the same thing.
Truthfulness under oath is, by now, a matter of our civic religion, our relation to our fellow citizens rather than our relation to a nonhuman power.
Have you ever asked yourselves what you are going to do when you grow up? In all likelihood you will get married, and before you know where you are, you will be mothers and fathers; and you will then be tied to a job, or to the kitchen, in which you will gradually wither away. Is that all that your life is going to be?
'Death with dignity' is our society's expression of the universal yearning to achieve a graceful triumph over the stark and often repugnant finality of life's last sputterings. But the fact is, death is not a confrontation. It is simply an event in the sequence of nature's ongoing rhythms.
The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention argues that no two countries that are both part of the same global supply chain will ever fight a war as long as they are each part of that supply chain.
One war, such as that of our Revolution, is enough for one life.
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