Masses are rude, lame, unmade, pernicious in their demands and influence, and need not to be flattered, but to be schooled. I wish not to concede anything to them, but to tame, drill, divide, and break them up, and draw individuals out of them.
Interpretation
Emerson believes that the masses need guidance and education rather than praise, advocating for individual thought and empowerment.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson expresses a critical view of the masses, suggesting that their collective demands and influences can be harmful or detrimental. Rather than simply flattering the masses, he advocates for a more rigorous approach to shaping individuals within society, emphasizing the importance of education and individualistic values over conformity. Emerson's intent is to uplift and empower individuals by breaking down the passive tendencies of the crowd, encouraging each person to think and act independently.
In practice
In a lecture about leadership, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of educating people rather than just catering to popular opinion.
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?
One could not pluck a flower without troubling a star.
The hatred and contempt for men, women and children that was manifested in the Shoah was a crime against God and against humanity.
I may say that the only differences I expect to see revealed between the behavior of the rat and man (aside from enormous differences of complexity) lie in the field of verbal behavior.
Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than malice and wickedness.
Know that the philosopher has power over the stars, and not the stars over him.
Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.
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