A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we awake from dreams.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that human potential is often marred by suffering and loss, yet in innocence, life can be enriched and beautiful.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote reflects on the duality of human existence, comparing humans to 'gods in ruins' which implies that while we hold immense potential and greatness, our flaws and experiences of suffering often diminish that potential. Emerson suggests that in states of innocence, life can be profound and transcendent, allowing us to navigate our existence with a grace similar to waking from a dream, emphasizing the beauty of pure and unblemished life experiences.
In practice
In a graduation speech emphasizing the potential of youth and the importance of innocence.
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?
Evolution does not make happiness its goal; it aims simply at evolution and nothing else.
In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.
May we live like the lotus, at home in muddy water.
Nevertheless, just as I believe that the Book of Scripture illumines the pathway to God, so I believe that the Book of Nature, with its astonishing details-the blade of grass, the Conus cedonulli, or the resonance levels of the carbon atom-also suggest a God of purpose and a God of design. And I think my belief makes me no less a scientist.
There are nettles everywhere, but smooth, green grasses are more common still; the blue of heaven is larger than the cloud.
The struggle to end sexist oppression that focuses on destroying the cultural basis for such domination strengthens other liberation struggles. Individuals who fight for the eradication of sexism without struggles to end racism or classism undermine their own efforts. Individuals who fight for the eradication of racism or classism while supporting sexist oppression are helping to maintain the cultural basis of all forms of group oppression.
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