How much of human life is lost in waiting.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that procrastination and hesitation lead to missed opportunities in life.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote emphasizes the detrimental effects of waiting and inaction on human life. It serves as a reminder that too much time spent in anticipation or indecision can result in valuable moments being lost, urging individuals to take initiative and act rather than remain passive, which may hinder personal growth and fulfillment.
In practice
During a speech about productivity, one might say, 'As Ralph Waldo Emerson wisely pointed out, how much of human life is lost in waiting.'
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?
It's funny: I've always had the analogy of a snow globe, that Hollywood is a snow globe. No, it's true. If you shake it up, you can look at it and really enjoy it. But don't ever go in. Don't ever buy into it and be like, 'I deserve all of this!' because it can go away at any time, so just have a lot of fun.
Better to try all things and find all empty, than to try nothing and leave your life a blank.
Remember, remember, this is now, and now, and now. Live it, feel it, cling to it. I want to become acutely aware of all Iβve taken for granted.
Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave. Our lives are measured by these.
We can't plan life. All we can do is be available for it.
It is normal to give away a little of one's life in order not to lose it all.
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