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?
My thoughts are starts I can't fathom into constellations.
What you hear depends on how you focus your ear. We're not talking about inventing a new language, but rather inventing new perceptions of existing languages.
This rule of silence is upheld when the culture refuses everyone easy access even to the word βpatriarchy.β Most children do not learn what to call this system of institutionaliz ed gender roles, so rarely do we name it in everyday speech. This silence promotes denial. And how can we organize to challenge and change a system that cannot be named?
Liberty is a luxury of security; the free individual is a product and a mark of civilization.
A Christian who withdraws into himself, hiding all that the Lord has given him, is not a Christian! I would ask the many young people present to be generous with their God-given talents for the good of others, the Church and our world.
The only secure knowledge is that I exist.
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