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 development of a kind heart, or feeling of closeness for all human beings, does not involve any of the kind of religiosity we normally associate with it...It is for everyone, irrespective of race, religion or any political affiliation.
This rule of silence is upheld when the culture refuses everyone easy access even to the word “patriarchy.” Most children do not learn what to call this system of institutionaliz ed gender roles, so rarely do we name it in everyday speech. This silence promotes denial. And how can we organize to challenge and change a system that cannot be named?
Thus "phenomenology" means αποφαινεσθαι τα φαινομενα -- to let that which shows itself be seen from itself in the very way in which it shows itself from itself.
Clumsiness attempts to fix simplicity straight in the eye. It is not a mark of incompetence but of reticence.
Humans treat animals as things that exist as means to human ends. That's morally wrong. Sexism promotes the idea that women are things that exist as means to the ends of men. That's morally wrong. We need to stop treating all persons - whether human or nonhuman - as things.
Loneliness, when accepted, becomes a gift that will lead us to find a purpose in life.
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