Our people are slow to learn the wisdom of sending character instead of talent to Congress. Again and again they have sent a man of great acuteness, a fine scholar, a fine forensic orator, and some master of the brawls has crunched him up in his hands like a bit of paper.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of character over talent in leadership roles.
Ralph Waldo Emerson highlights a common observation in politics: while individuals may possess great talent and intelligence, it is ultimately their character that determines their effectiveness in leadership. He suggests that too often, society values intellectual prowess and oratory skills over moral integrity and the ability to lead with virtue, leading to the downfall of capable individuals at the hands of those with lesser skills but stronger character.
In practice
Use this quote in a speech about the qualities necessary for effective leadership in politics.
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?
My father was very disappointed by war and fighting. And he thought language could help us out of cycles of revenge and animosity. And so, as a journalist, he always found himself asking lots of questions and trying to gather information. He was always very clear to underscore the fact that Jewish people and Arab people were brother and sister.
Soon I knew the craft of experimental physics was beyond me - it was the sublime quality of patience - patience in accumulating data, patience with recalcitrant equipment - which I sadly lacked.
Failure to believe stems from moral failure to recognize the truth, not from want of evidence, but from willful neglect or distortion of the evidence.
The true self, once discovered, is the source of creativity, intelligence and personal growth. No external solution has such power.
Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.
Our first duty is not to hate ourselves, because to advance we must have faith in ourselves first and then in God. Those who have no faith in themselves can never have faith in God.
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