Are you not scared by seeing that the gypsies are more attractive to us than the apostles?
Interpretation
The quote reflects on societal values and the allure of superficiality over profound virtues.
In this quote, Emerson contrasts the magnetic appeal of gypsies, who embody freedom and allure, with the apostles, who represent moral integrity and spiritual depth. It prompts the reader to consider the societal inclination towards superficial attractiveness and the underlying implications of such preferences in a moral and philosophical context.
In practice
In a discussion about societal trends and moral values, one could use this quote to highlight the allure of superficial beauty over deeper virtue.
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 fact that we are living does not mean we are not sick.
When politics and home life have become one and the same thing, [...] then,[...] it is evident that we will be in a state of total liberty or anarchy.
What is this word that broke through the fence of your teeth, Atreides?
Two or three angels Came near to the earth. They saw a fat church. Little black streams of people Came and went in continually. And the angels were puzzled To know why the people went thus, And why they stayed so long within.
Memory is so crazy! It's like we've got these drawers crammed with tons of useless stuff. Meanwhile, all the really important things we just keep forgetting, one after the other.
Character is not cut in marble - it is not something solid and unalterable. It is something living and changing, and may become diseased as our bodies do.
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