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?
And this lesson about mortal peace of mind I never forgot. Even if a ghost is ripping a house to pieces, throwing in pans all over, pouring water of pillows, making clocks chime at all hours, mortal will accept almost any "natural explanation" offered, no matter how absurd, rather than the obvious supernatural one, for what is going on.
To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.
I was thinking, that when my time comes, I should be sorry if the only plea I had to offer was that of justice. Because it might mean that only justice would be meted out to me.
The most dangerous of devotions, in my opinion, is the one endemic to Christianity: I was not born to be of this world. With a second life waiting, suffering can be endured - especially in other people. The natural environment can be used up. Enemies of the faith can be savaged and suicidal martyrdom praised.
Of course you can have an opinion about Islam without having read Qur'an. You don't have to read Mein Kampf to have an opinion about Nazism.
Let men learn that a legislature is not 'our God upon earth,' though, by the authority they ascribe to it, and the things they expect from it, they would seem to think it is. Let them learn rather that it is an institution serving a purely temporary purpose, whose power, when not stolen, is at the best borrowed.
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