There is something servile in the habit of seeking after a law which we must obey.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that adhering strictly to external laws can undermine personal autonomy and spirit.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote reflects on the nature of obedience and the human tendency to seek external laws or guidelines to follow. By labeling this habit as 'servile', Emerson implies that it diminishes our individuality and capacity for self-governance, urging us to embrace our inner moral compass rather than rely solely on imposed rules.
In practice
In a discussion about personal responsibility during a philosophy class.
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 complete irresponsibility of man for his actions and his nature is the bitterest drop which he who understands must swallow.
All real fantasy is serious. Only faked fantasy is not serious. That is why it is so wrong to impose faked fantasy on children.
Because the question for me was always whether that shape we see in our lives was there from the beginning or whether these random events are only called a pattern after the fact. Because otherwise we are nothing.
Perhaps that is part of the animals' role among us, to awaken humility, to turn our minds back to the mystery of things, and open our hearts to that most impractical of hopes in which all creation speaks as one.
The very special place that a language occupies among institutions is undeniable, but there is much more to be said-, a comparison would tend rather to bring out the differences.
To feed men and not to love them is to treat them as if they were barnyard cattle. To love them and not respect them is to treat them as if they were household pets.
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