The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the idea that children perceive the world with more openness and wonder than adults.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote suggests that children have a unique ability to appreciate and internalize the beauty and truth of the world around them. While adults may see only what is in front of their eyes, children engage with their surroundings on a deeper emotional level, allowing the light of the sun to touch not just their sight but also their hearts. This highlights the importance of maintaining a sense of wonder and emotional connection to the world as one grows older.
In practice
During a speech about the importance of childlike wonder in education.
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?
An ignorant man ages like an ox. His flesh may increase, but not his understanding.
Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let nothing Disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, Though all things pass, God does not change. Patience wins all things. But he lacks nothing who possesses God; For God alone suffices.
Misery don't call ahead. That's why you have to stay awake - otherwise it just walks on in your door.
When we take the one seat on our meditation cushion we become our own monastery. We create the compassionate space that allows for the arising of all things: sorrows, loneliness, shame, desire, regret, frustration, happiness.
You do things when the opportunities come along. I've had periods in my life when I've had a bundle of ideas come along, and I've had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I'll do something. If not, I won't do a damn thing.
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