One of our statesmen said, "The curse of this country is eloquent men."
Interpretation
Eloquent men can influence society in both positive and negative ways, and this can be seen as a curse.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote suggests that while eloquence can be a powerful tool for persuasion, it can also lead to manipulation and deception. The speaker implies that charismatic and articulate individuals may use their gifts to sway public opinion or lead the masses astray, thus becoming a curse rather than a blessing to society.
In practice
During a debate, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of critical thinking over persuasive speech.
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?
I happen to think that American politics is one of the noblest arts of mankind; and I cannot do anything else but write about it.
I think that it's a vital moment now for Russian democracy to convince people that it's only our actions, our joined actions and protests that could force Kremlin to reconsider its plans to abolish presidential elections.
When it comes to terrorism, governments seem to suffer from a collective amnesia. All of our historical experience tells us that there can be no purely military solution to a political problem, and yet every time we confront a new terrorist group, we begin by insisting we will never talk to them.
I have against me the bourgeois, the military and the diplomats, and for me, only the people who take the Metro.
Government can do something for the people only in proportion as it can do something to the people.
It's hard to overstate the lasting harm Mr. Tillerson's tenure will do to America's diplomacy.
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