And what greater calamity can fall upon a nation than the loss of worship.
Interpretation
The loss of worship symbolizes a deeper decline in a nation's moral and spiritual values.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote emphasizes the significance of worship and spirituality within a nation. He suggests that losing the capacity or the inclination to worship can lead to profound moral and ethical decay, ultimately endangering the very fabric of society. This loss, he contends, can be more disastrous than any physical calamity, as it signifies a disconnect from fundamental values and principles that unify and uplift people.
In practice
In a speech about community values, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of shared beliefs.
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 people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now concerns itself no more, and longs eagerly for just two things: bread and circuses!
The spoken word vanished with the wind. Likewise, the unrecorded life disappears as if it never existed.
It is flat-out strange that something-that anything-is happening at all. There was nothing then a Big Bang, then here we all are. This is extremely weird.
The sanctity of law can be maintained only so long as it is the expression of the will of the people.
From a Buddhist point of view, emotions are not real. As an actor, I manufacture emotions. They're a sense of play. But real life is the same. We're just not aware of it.
And I don't think we should be continuing to propagate the idea that famous people are magical or special because it makes people feel like their lives ain't no good.
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