Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown, Of thee, from the hill-top looking down; And the heifer, that lows in the upland farm, Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm; The sexton tolling the bell at noon, Dreams not that great Napoleon Sto
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the indifferent nature of life towards individual concerns and ambitions in the grand scheme of things.
In this quote, Emerson illustrates how various elements of life, such as the red-cloaked clown, the distant heifer, and the sexton tolling the bell, remain oblivious to one another and to the larger historical context, exemplified by Napoleon. This suggests that while individuals may be preoccupied with their own lives, significant events and figures may exist beyond their awareness, highlighting a disconnect between personal experiences and the broader human narrative.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the nature of individual struggles in the face of historical events.
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?
Man need not be degraded to a machine by being denied to be a ghost in a machine. He might, after all, be a sort of animal, namely, a higher mammal. There has yet to be ventured the hazardous leap to the hypothesis that perhaps he is a man.
I have seen him set fire to his wigwam and smooth over the graves of his fathers... clap his hand in silence over his mouth, and take the last look over his fair hunting ground, and turn his face in sadness to the setting sun.
As long as human labor power, and, consequently, life itself, remain articles of sale and purchase, of exploitation and robbery, the principle of the “sacredness of human life” remains a shameful lie, uttered with the object of keeping the oppressed slaves in their chains.
All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.
In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy.
Every creature is a glittering, glistening mirror of Divinity.
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