Rhodora! If the sages ask thee why This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, Then Beauty is its own excuse for being.
Interpretation
Beauty exists for its own sake, regardless of its purpose.
In this quote, Emerson reflects on the idea that beauty should not be justified by its usefulness or practicality. Instead, it has intrinsic value and significance, suggesting that the mere presence of beauty in the world is a valid reason for its existence, inspiring us to appreciate and celebrate the aesthetic aspects of life without needing a functional rationale.
In practice
In a discussion about art and its significance, one could quote Emerson to emphasize that beauty holds value beyond practicality.
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?
There is nothing so despicable as a secret society that is based upon religious prejudice and that will attempt to defeat a man because of his religious beliefs. Such a society is like a cockroach - it thrives in the dark. So do those who combine for such an end.
For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions, and the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything chosen about them.
Visit your soul; don't visit your past.
Of all studies, the one he would rather have avoided was that of his own mind. He knew no tragedy so heartrending as introspection.
We're never going to come to a moment where all of us who claim to be feminists can agree about what the first priority of feminism is.
When fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.
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