Power ceases in the instant of repose; it resides in the moment of transition from a past to a new state, in the shooting of the gulf, in the darting to an aim.
Interpretation
True power is found in moments of change and transition, rather than in stillness.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote emphasizes that power is not a constant state but something that emerges during periods of change. It highlights the importance of being proactive and dynamic, illustrating that the ability to move from one state to another—whether in thoughts, actions, or circumstances—is where true strength lies.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to inspire people during times of change.
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?
In sorrow, pretend to be fearless. In happiness, tremble.
Woman has suffered for eons, and that has given her infinite patience and infinite perseverance.
We've been programmed, from the time that we were very, very little, about what we can't do - about what is impossible.
All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that's an alibi for my ignorance.
Develop discipline of self so that you do not have to decide and re-decide what you will do when you are confronted with the same temptation time and time again. You need only decide some things once.
That is another chamber of my heart that shows no electrical activity - the chamber that used to flicker into life when I saw a film that moved me, or read a book that inspired me, or listened to music that made me want to cry. I closed that chamber myself, for all the usual reasons. And now I seem to have made a pact with some philistine devil: if I don't attempt to re-open it, I will be allowed just enough energy and optimism to get through a working day without wanting to hang myself.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.