A great man stands on God. A small man on a great man.
Interpretation
True greatness is rooted in a higher purpose, while lesser individuals depend on those who are greater than themselves.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that true greatness comes from a strong foundation of faith and principles, represented by 'God', indicating that a truly great person is humble and recognizes a greater power. In contrast, those who merely stand upon the successes of others lack true depth and significance, as their greatness is derived from someone else's achievements.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to inspire leaders to seek deeper meaning in their actions.
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?
Our knowledge is a little island in a great ocean of nonknowledge.
Do you know the hallmark of the second-rater? It's resentment of another man's achievement.
Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Those rewards create almost as many problems as they solve. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for our having passed through it.
The longer I live, the more I realize that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time!
It is only when the formed learns from the unformed that there is understanding.
To learn to concentrate we must choose a prayer or meditation and follow this path with commitment and steadiness, a willingness to work with our practice day after day, no matter what arises.
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