Pines a thousand years old. Every year they must go farther for them: they recede, like beavers and Indians, before the white man.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the gradual loss of natural and indigenous elements due to the expansion of society.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote highlights the inevitability of change and loss in nature, as ancient pines, symbolizing enduring natural beauty and the indigenous people, are forced to retreat in the face of advancing civilization represented by 'the white man.' This serves as a poignant reminder of the consequences of human progress on the environment and native cultures.
In practice
In a speech about environmental preservation, I might cite this quote to stress the importance of protecting our natural resources.
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?
The Everglades is a test. If we pass it, we may get to keep the planet.
The Montana sunset lay between the mountains like a giant bruise from which darkened arteries spread across a poisoned sky.
So many times I've photographed stories that show the degradation of the planet. I had one idea to go and photograph the factories that were polluting, and to see all the deposits of garbage. But, in the end, I thought the only way to give us an incentive, to bring hope, is to show the pictures of the pristine planet - to see the innocence.
But the golden-rod is one of the fairy, magical flowers; it grows not up to seek human love amid the light of day, but to mark to the discerning what wealth lies hid in the secret caves of earth.
I stood beside a hill_x000D_ _x000D_ Smooth with new-laid snow,_x000D_ _x000D_ A single star looked out_x000D_ _x000D_ From the cold evening glow._x000D_ _x000D_ There was not other creature_x000D_ _x000D_ That saw what I could see,_x000D_ _x000D_ I stood and watched the evening star_x000D_ _x000D_ As long as it watched me.
Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun, Who is the day through whom You give us light. And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour; of You, Most High, he bears the likeness.
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