In all my lectures, I have taught one doctrine, namely, the infinitude of the private man.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the limitless potential and individuality of every person.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote speaks to the idea that each individual possesses infinite value and possibilities. It suggests that within every person lies an immense depth of character, experience, and potential that should be recognized and nurtured. This doctrine aligns with Emerson's broader transcendentalist beliefs, emphasizing self-reliance and the inherent worth of the individual in a society that often pressures conformity.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth and development.
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?
Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity.
The world was to me a secret which I desired to devine.
My father has never once asked me a question, any question. There's a freedom that came from that. It allowed me to create my own way of thinking.
Industrial manβa sentient reciprocating engine having a fluctuating output, coupled to an iron wheel revolving with uniform velocity. And then we wonder why this should be the golden age of revolution and mental derangement.
Terror is only justice: prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country.
The more important the subject and the closer it cuts to the bone of our hopes and needs, the more we are likely to err in establishing a framework for analysis.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.