In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the idea of vitality and energy in youth versus the limitations of aging.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote suggests that in the morning of life, which symbolizes youth and vitality, a person is full of energy and engages with the world in a more holistic manner. As one ages, represented by the evening, the physical abilities may decline, leading a person to function more merely through their legs, emphasizing the loss of a more dynamic engagement with life.
In practice
During a philosophical discussion about the stages of life.
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?
There are no insoluble problems. Only time-consuming ones.
For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except that of the heart.
Where there is no strife there is decay: 'The mixture which is not shaken decomposes.'
I have but one system of ethics for men and for nations - to be grateful, to be faithful to all engagements under all circumstances, to be open and generous, promoting in the long run even the interests of both
There is something about the state putting the power to bully into the hands of subnormal, sadistic apes that makes my blood boil.
If error is corrected whenever it is recognized as such, the path of error is the path of truth.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.