The masses have no habit of self-reliance or original action.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that many people tend to rely on others rather than acting independently or taking initiative.
Ralph Waldo Emerson critiques the collective mindset of society, emphasizing that most individuals lack the courage and habit to think and act for themselves. This behavior leads to a reliance on the influence of others, eroding personal originality and self-reliance, which are essential qualities for individual growth and authentic living.
In practice
This quote can be used in a debate about individuality versus conformity.
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?
Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.
Having faith in the plan of salvation includes steadfastly refusing to be diverted from our true identities and responsibilities. In the brief season of our existence on earth we may serve as a plumber, professor, farmer, physician, mechanic, bookkeeper, or teacher. These are useful activities and honorable designations; but a temporary vocation is not reflective of our true identities. Matthew was a tax collector, Luke a physician, and Peter a fisherman. In a salvational sense, 'so what!'
With so many thousand joys, is it not black ingratitude to call the world a place of sorrow and torment?
When people come to you for help, do not turn them off with pious words, saying, 'Have faith and take your troubles to God.' Act instead as though there were no God, as though there were only one person in the world who could help -- only yourself.
I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.
Nobody seriously believes the universe was made by God without being persuaded that He takes care of His works.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.