The power men possess to annoy me I give them by a weak curiosity
Interpretation
One allows others to disturb their peace through their own curiosity and attention.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote suggests that people often give power to those who irritate them by being overly curious or concerned about their actions. It highlights the idea that our reactions to others can empower them to disturb our tranquility, and this self-awareness can lead to greater emotional resilience and autonomy.
In practice
In a public speech about mental health, one could use this quote to illustrate how we give others control over our emotions.
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?
Every man of genius sees the world at a different angle from his fellows, and there is his tragedy.
Do not be fooled by one who recites the QurΓ’n. His recitation is but speech β but look to those who act according to it.
Truth has to be repeated constantly, because Error also is being preached all the time, and not just by a few, but by the multitude. In the Press and Encyclopaedias, in Schools and Universities, everywhere Error holds sway, feeling happy and comfortable in the knowledge of having Majority on its side.
I have never regretted my silence. As for my speech, I have regretted it over and over again.
If you get a call to go to a certain place in the middle of the night to pick up stolen goods, and it turns out the stolen goods don't show up but the cops show up, I think you're going to have a very weak story saying, 'Well, I got swindled here.'
The definition of the good life is doing creative things, whether making music, trying to figure out how to do a particular piece of code, or putting together investments.
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