The mark of a man of the world is absence of pretension.
Interpretation
True wisdom involves being genuine and without artificiality in one's interactions.
Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that a truly worldly or knowledgeable person is characterized by their authenticity; they do not put on a facade or pretend to be someone theyβre not. This absence of pretension signifies a deep understanding of oneself and the value of honesty in human relationships, suggesting that being true to oneself is the mark of maturity and sophistication.
In practice
A speaker at a seminar about personal development might use this quote to emphasize the importance of being genuine.
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?
How you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top
There may be a time when a country will have to wake up from a vision of happiness, when they have to realize that theirs is not the perfect idea, that there are many aspects that do not correspond to the reality of what is there, the real need and aspirations of the people.
Humans are, by nature, pattern-seeking, storytelling animals, and we are quite adept at telling stories about patterns whether they exist or not.
New Orleans - the real New Orleans - is the soul of the country.
He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.
No nation is drunken where wine is cheap.
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