Nothing is more disgusting than the crowing about liberty by slaves, as most men are, and the flippant mistaking for freedom of some paper preamble like a Declaration of Independence, or the statute right to vote, by those who have never dared to think or to act.
Interpretation
The quote critiques those who falsely claim to be free while remaining enslaved by conformity and ignorance.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote highlights the irony of individuals who boast about their liberty yet are confined by their own lack of critical thought and action. He suggests that true freedom is not merely the right to vote or the existence of important documents like the Declaration of Independence, but rather the personal responsibility to engage in meaningful reflection and to act courageously in pursuit of genuine liberty.
In practice
In a speech about civic responsibility, one could use this quote to emphasize the need for active engagement in society.
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?
Written language must be considered as a particular psychic reality. The book is permanent; it is an object in your field of vision. It speaks to you with a monotonous authority which even its author would not have. You are fairly obliged to read what is written.
The beauty myth moves for men as a mirage; its power lies in its ever-receding nature. When the gap is closed, the lover embraces only his own disillusion.
There is only one good. And that is to act according to the dictates of one's conscience.
Beware of thinkers whose minds function only when they are fueled by a quotation.
We are too solicitous for government intervention, on the theory, first, that the people themselves are helpless, and second, that the Government has superior capacity for action. Often times both of these conclusions are wrong.
I started in business journalism from the outside, so when I started writing about markets and business, I was struck by the fact that markets seemed to work well even though people are often irrational, lack good information and are not perfect in the way they think about decisions.
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