We fancy men are individuals; so are pumpkins; but every pumpkin in the field goes through every point of pumpkin history.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that while we may see ourselves as unique individuals, we share common experiences and histories, much like pumpkins in a field.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote reflects on the nature of individuality versus shared experiences. He uses the metaphor of pumpkins, implying that, despite the superficial differences among individuals, there exists a shared journey or history that connects us all. Just as every pumpkin grows through various stages in its lifecycle, people undergo similar experiences that shape their existence, highlighting the intersection of uniqueness and universality in human life.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the nature of identity and community.
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?
But what is Hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence; the least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of.
These unwritten amenities have been in part responsible for giving our people the feeling of independence and self-confidence, the feeling of creativity. These amenities have dignified the right of dissent and have honored the right to be nonconformists and the right to defy submissiveness. They have encouraged lives of high spirits rather than hushed, suffocating silence.
There's no point of having faith if you have evidence.
Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.
Yesterday is ever jealous of...tomorrow.
Commonplace people dislike tragedy because they dare not suffer and cannot exult.
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