I am grown by sympathy a little eager and sentimental, but leave me alone, and I should relish every hour and what it brought me, the pot-luck of the day, as heartily as the oldest gossip in the bar-room.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the importance of appreciating life's moments, whether they bring joy or challenge.
In this quote, Emerson expresses a sentiment about the richness of experience and the human condition. He suggests that while he may be influenced by sympathy and sentimentality, he thrives when left to engage with life on his own terms, savoring each moment for what it brings. The metaphor of 'the pot-luck of the day' implies a diversity of experiences, and he emphasizes a sincere enjoyment of life, much like the casual camaraderie found in a social setting like a bar-room.
In practice
This quote could inspire a speech at a life celebration event.
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?
When I was learning to creep, my mother set me down on the beach to see what I thought of it. I crawled straight for the coming wave and was just through the wall of green when she caught my heels.
You can run but you can't hide... but I can try. I feel air catch in my lungs and I get a cramp in my side and this pain, this wonderful physical pain that I can place, reminds me that after all I am still alive.
Yes, you live with your feet in the mud and there's no time to be thinking about how you got in or how you're going to get out.
I do not see myself as a footnote to someone else's life.
True and false fears let us refrain, Let us love nobly, and live, and add again Years and years unto years, till we attain To write threescore ; this is the second of our reign.
There are two things in life you cannot choose. The first is your enemies; the second your family. Sometimes the difference between them is hard to see, but in the end time will show you that the cards you have been dealt could always have been worse.
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