We ask for long life, but 'tis deep life, or noble moments that signify. Let the measure of time be spiritual, not mechanical.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the importance of experiencing meaningful moments rather than simply counting years.
Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that the true essence of life lies not in its duration but in the depth and quality of the experiences we have. He emphasizes that spiritual richness and significant moments define our existence more than the mere passage of time, advocating for a life that prioritizes meaningful experiences over a long, unremarkable life.
In practice
In a graduation speech to emphasize the importance of meaningful experiences over mere age.
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?
Two possibilities: making oneself infinitely small or being so. The second is perfection, that is to say, inactivity, the first is beginning, that is to say, action.
He who imitates what is evil always goes beyond the example that is set; on the contrary, he who imitates what is good always falls short.
Grant that we may be one flock and one shepherd.
What delights, what pleasures does your life offer you that outweigh the raptures of death?
Death, after all, is the common expectation from birth. Neither heroes nor cowards can escape it.
America's greatest contribution to the world is its concept of democracy, its concept of freedom, freedom of action, freedom of speech, and freedom of thought.
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