Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous or when they are most luxurious-they are conservatives after dinner.
Interpretation
People tend to become conservative when they are comfortable or complacent.
Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that during times of relaxation and abundance, individuals may lean towards conservative views and reluctance to change, indicating a psychological state influenced by comfort. This reflects a broader understanding of human behavior, where the lack of challenge or necessity can lead to stagnant thinking and an adherence to the status quo.
In practice
During a lecture on political philosophy, you can use this quote to illustrate how personal comfort influences political attitudes.
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 of the great ironies of our time is that some of the most progressive cities are among the most systemically racist in their housing policies.
For the world, I count it not an inn, but a hospital; and a place not to live, but to die in.
Everyone around me says, You're a genius! You're great! That's your voice! But I'm not sure if they're right.
For many centuries, even thousands of years, patriotism worked quite well. Of course, it led to wars an so forth, but we shouldn't focus too much on the bad.
Peace by persuasion has a pleasant sound, but I think we should not be able to work it. We should have to tame the human race first, and history seems to show that that cannot be done.
Once you start describing nothingness, you end up with somethingness.
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