We are reformers in the spring and summer, but in autumn we stand by the old. Reformers in the morning, and conservers at night.
Interpretation
We often embrace new ideas and change during the bright and energetic times of our lives, but revert to tradition and stability as circumstances shift.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects on the dual nature of human behavior regarding change and tradition. He suggests that individuals often embody the spirit of reform and progress during the 'spring and summer' phases of life, symbolizing youth and enthusiasm, while they tend to cling to established norms and conservatism during the 'autumn' and 'night,' representing maturity and the desire for stability. This duality highlights the balance between innovation and tradition in human experiences.
In practice
During a motivational speech about embracing new ideas while respecting past achievements.
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 power of effecting changes for the better is within ourselves, not in the favorableness of circumstances.
The world moves, and ideas that were once good are not always good.
It is not for us to forecast the future, but to shape it.
She was so busy forgetting, she couldn't take a single step into the future.
Be transparent as wind, be as possible and relentless and dangerous, be what moves things forward without needing to leave a mark, be part of this collection of molecules that begins somewhere unknown and can't help but keep rising. Rising.Rising. Rising.
When I stepped away two springs ago, I just really wanted to shift my priorities to be able to be more available and present to show up for things that I felt were mattering more than being a professional athlete.
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