My life should be unique; it should be an alms, a battle, a conquest, a medicine.
Interpretation
Emerson emphasizes the importance of living a life that is distinctive and meaningful, encompassing struggles and triumphs.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote suggests that a truly fulfilling life is one that embraces uniqueness and purpose. He likens life to various forms of significance, such as an alms for others, a battle against challenges, a conquest of personal goals, and a medicine for the soul, indicating that life should be approached with a blend of generosity, struggle, achievement, and healing.
In practice
This quote can inspire students to pursue their passions distinctly.
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?
On these magic shores children at play are for ever beaching their coracles. We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more.
One of the very first things I figured out about life...is that it's better to be a hopeful person than a cynical, grumpy one, because you have to live in the same world either way, and if you're hopeful, you have more fun.
Just when you begin thinking of yourself as memorable, you run into someone who can't even remember having met you
I miss Saturday morning, rolling out of bed, not shaving, getting into my car with my girls, driving to the supermarket, squeezing the fruit, getting my car washed, taking walks.
It's absolutely fantastic. When I was a kid, my father was always trying to tell me how to be a man, and he said to me, I was maybe 9, and he said to me, 'Philip, whenever you take a nap, take your clothes off, put a blanket on you, and you're going to sleep better.' Well, as with everything, he was right. ... Then the best part of it is that when you wake up, for the first 15 seconds, you have no idea where you are. You're just alive. That's all you know. And it's bliss, it's absolute bliss.
Life is a journey, but don't worry, you'll find a parking spot at the end.
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