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?
If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last.
There is no need to give in to the compromise that totalitarian regimes always count on.
If the State cannot survive the anti-slavery agitation, then let the State perish. If the Church must be cast down by the strugglings of Humanity to be free, then let the Church fall and its fragments be scattered to the four winds of Heaven, never more to curse the earth.
What I did at Ole Miss had nothing to do with going to classes. My objective was to destroy the system of white supremacy.
Three words remain that can yet stir the blood of man: the word 'rebellion'; the word 'revolt'; the word 'revolution'.
No matter what happens in the kitchen, never apologize.
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