O friend, never strike sail to a fear!
Interpretation
Do not give in to your fears; face them bravely.
This quote emphasizes the importance of courage in the face of fear. Emerson encourages us not to yield or retreat when confronted with our fears, but rather to confront them head-on, suggesting that true strength lies in overcoming our anxieties and challenges.
In practice
Using this quote in a motivational speech to inspire students to face their challenges.
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?
One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential.
I have been refused entrance on the buses because I would not pay my fare at the front and go around to the rear door to enter. That was the custom if the bus was crowded up to the point where the white passengers would start occupying.
All our compatriots know that the loss of Mongolia would mean the demise of our country. We would rather resist Russia and die heroically than succumb to Russia and perish shamefully.
A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today. The Western world has lost its civic courage . . . . Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling and intellectual elite, causing an impression of a loss of courage by the entire society.
If it's necessary to form a Black Nationalist army, we'll form a Black Nationalist army. It'll be ballot or the bullet. It'll be liberty or it'll be death.
We avoid the things that we're afraid of because we think there will be dire consequences if we confront them. But the truly dire consequences in our lives come from avoiding things that we need to learn about or discover.
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