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?
No thought, no reflection, no analysis, no cultivation, no intention; let it settle itself.
There are two good things in life - freedom of thought and freedom of action.
Many seek and never see, anyone can tell them why. O they weep and O they cry and never take until they try unless they try it in their sleep and never some until they die. I ask many, they ask me. This is a great mystery.
Mistakes are painful when they happen, but years later a collection of mistakes is what is called experience.
The Devil is in the details, but so is salvation.
The scholar does not consider gold and jade to be precious treasures, but loyalty and good faith.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.