Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.
Interpretation
Common sense and straightforwardness often surprise people more than complex ideas.
This quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the value of common sense and honesty in our interactions. It suggests that while people may often seek out grand ideas or complexities, it is the simplicity and clarity of common sense that truly astonishes and impacts others, highlighting a preference for straightforward communication in a world full of convoluted thoughts.
In practice
In a speech advocating for transparency in business practices.
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?
Youth is the best time to be rich, and the best time to be poor.
For in the end, it is all about memory, its sources and its magnitude, and, of course, its consequences.
To let the brain work without sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to pieces.
Lies cannot nourish or protect you. Only freedom from fear, freedom from lies, can make us beautiful, and keep us safe.
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted in important affairs.
I forgive myself for not being perfect. I am living the very best way I know how.
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