What you do thunders above your head so loudly, I cannot hear the words you speak.
Interpretation
Actions carry more weight than words; what you do speaks louder than what you say.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the importance of actions over words. It suggests that one's behavior and deeds are powerful indicators of true intent and character, often overshadowing verbal communication. In this sense, it serves as a reminder to be mindful of how our actions reflect our beliefs and values.
In practice
In a discussion about leadership, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of demonstrating values through actions.
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?
You're the only one who knows when you're using things to protect yourself and keep your ego together and when you're opening and letting things fall apart, letting the world come as it is - working with it rather than struggling against it. You're the only one who knows.
I don't guess. I think. I ponder. I deduce. Then I decide. But I never guess.
Look upon him who shows you your faults as a revealer of treasure: seek his company who checks and chides you, the sage who is wise in reproof: it fares well and not ill with him who seeks such company.
I've watched a lot of people who became famous who completely change and I think it's because they tend to believe all the hype that's out there. I don't think there's that much hype about me.
If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished.
The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity. The believing man is the original man; whatsoever he believes, he believes it for himself, not for another.
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