I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship.
Interpretation
Emerson criticizes superficial methods of achieving success without deep understanding or hard work.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson expresses disdain for the American tendency to seek wealth and knowledge through shortcuts, rather than through diligent effort and deep learning. He highlights the futility of trying to attain mastery in various fields without proper study, training, or apprenticeship, emphasizing the importance of dedication and thorough understanding in the pursuit of true knowledge and success.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of education, someone might use this quote to highlight the value of hard work.
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?
Each thought is a nail that is driven In structures that cannot decay; And the mansion at last will be given To us as we build it each day.
Indulgence in frivolous speech not only reveals one's lack of moral character, but it deprives him of good qualities also.
He who is of a calm and happy nature, will hardly feel the pressure of age
When you have great joy, you will become Buddhas!
The reality is, I like imperfection. You take away from the world when you're not yourself. Whatever is unique and special about you was designed by God. And when you try to be someone else, we don't get you. Who knows what you would have contributed to the world had you just been yourself, if you had just celebrated who you are and just walked boldly?
The history of knowledge is a great fugue in which the voices of the nations one after the other emerge.
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