It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone, scarcely even in acts of pure memory, but to bring the past for judgment into the thousand-eyed present, and live ever in a new day.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of present awareness over mere reliance on memory.
Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that wisdom lies in not solely depending on our memories, even when recalling past events. Instead, he advocates for using our present experiences and insights to evaluate the past, encouraging us to embrace each day as a new opportunity for growth and understanding.
In practice
This quote can be used during a seminar on personal development.
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?
To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
Stop short of your appetite; eat less than you are able.
My words itch at your ears till you understand them
Nor deem the irrevocable Past _x000D_ As wholly wasted, wholly vain, _x000D_ If, rising on its wrecks, at last _x000D_ To something nobler we attain.
Every (stressful thought) is a variation on a single theme: This shouldn't be happening. I shouldn't be having this experience. God is unjust. Life isn't fair.
Give up, renounce the world. Now we are like dogs strayed into a kitchen and eating a piece of meat, looking round in fear lest at any moment some one may come and drive them out. Instead of that, be a king and know you own the world. This never comes until you give it up and it ceases to bind. Give up mentally, if you do not physically. Give up from the heart of your hearts
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