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?
A reactionary is fixed on the past and wanting to return to it; a conservative wishes to adapt what is best in the past to the changing circumstances of the present.
There is...a spiritual hunger in the world today and it cannot be satisfied...by better cars on longer credit terms.
Cassius Clay is a name that white people gave to my slave master. Now that I am free, that I don't belong anymore to anyone, that I'm not a slave anymore, I gave back their white name, and I chose a beautiful African one.
Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world, and that God will preserve it always.
Meditation is such a more substantial reality than what we normally take to be reality.
People who have a religion should be glad, for not everyone has the gift of believing in heavenly things.
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