As long as civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions. Our riches will leave us sick; there will be bitterness in our laughter, and our wine will burn our mouth. Only that good profits which we can taste with all doors open, and which serves all men.
Interpretation
Civilization centered around property leads to disillusionment, while true wealth is about shared experiences.
Ralph Waldo Emerson critiques a civilization focused solely on property and exclusivity, suggesting that this approach breeds discontent and a lack of genuine joy. He emphasizes that true wealth comes from experiences that are accessible to all, implying that community and shared enjoyment are the real measures of prosperity, rather than material possessions that create barriers between people.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about wealth inequality during a charity 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?
Imagination is not something apart and hermetic, not a way of leaving reality behind; it is a way of engaging reality.
God help us from those who believe that they are the sole possessors of truth. How we manage at times to agree willingly to become prisoners within our own minds and souls of beliefs and ideas on which we can never be flexible.
Many people feel small because they're small and the universe is big, but I feel big.
Brethren, let us mind our own business - that is, the calling the Lord has called us to - to do everything we can to promote the good of the Cause of Truth, and never ask how big we are, or inquire who we are; but let it be, 'What can I do to build up the Kingdom of God upon the Earth?'
The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
The abdomen is the reason why man does not readily take himself to be a god.
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