Great men are more distinguished by range and extent than by originality.
Interpretation
True greatness stems from a broad understanding and acceptance rather than merely from original ideas.
Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that the mark of truly great individuals lies not just in their unique creations or thoughts but in their ability to encompass and synthesize a wide array of experiences and knowledge. Greatness is characterized by breadth and depth in understanding rather than isolated originality, highlighting the importance of learning from various sources and perspectives.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of collaboration and teamwork, one could use this quote to emphasize the value of learning from others.
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?
I remember I was walking through a store, and I saw clothes a 25-year-old would wear. And the conversation in my head was, 'I'm not young and fabulous anymore.' But, immediately, there was a voice that said, 'No, you can be older and fabulous.' In other words, still just as fabulous, but in a different way.
Unreasonable haste is the direct road to error.
Money is needed to bring about many good things but when your heart is attached, it destroys you
Move forward and let others do the same. Simple. This is a guiding principle everyone should have.
We are too apt to love praise, but not to deserve it.
To know how to choose a path with heart is to learn how to follow intuitive feeling. Logic can tell you superficially where a path might lead to, but it cannot judge whether your heart will be in it.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.