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?
We act not for ourselves but for the whole human race. The event of our experiment is to show whether man can be trusted with self - government.
Secrecy is as indispensable to human beings as fire, and as greatly feared.
The purpose that you wish to find in life, like a cure you seek, is not going to fall from the sky. ...I believe purpose is something for which one is responsible; it's not just divinely assigned.
God cannot reveal anything to us if we have not His spirit.
The Soul is the voice of the body's interests.
Accept the present moment and find the perfection that is deeper than any form and untouched by time.
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