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?
Our brains are very, very good at self-delusion. What happens is, it releases the stress hormone cortisol in the brain, which leads to foggy thinking, so you're not even able to judge well whether you're working well or not.
Of all human lamentations, without doubt, the most common is if only I had known. But we can't know, and so days of death and fire so often begin no differently than those of love and warmth.
The thought process can never be complete without articulation.
That which in mean men we entitle patience is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.
One wanders to the left, another to the right. Both are equally in error, but, are seduced by different delusions.
If we function according to our ability alone, we get the glory; if we function according to the power of the Spirit within us, God gets the glory.
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