When I was praised I lost my time, for instantly I turned around to look at the work I had thought slightly of, and that day I made nothing new.
Interpretation
Praise can distract us from our creative process and hinder productivity.
This quote reflects on the idea that seeking and receiving praise can divert our attention from our work and creativity. Emerson suggests that when he was celebrated for his past achievements, he wasted time reflecting on them instead of focusing on producing new work, showing how external validation can be a hindrance to personal growth and innovation.
In practice
This quote can be used in a workshop about maintaining focus in creative processes.
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?
A single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity.
It is in the character of growth that we should learn from both pleasant and unpleasant experiences.
On good days, if you trust life, life has to answer you.
There is more Bible buying, Bible selling, Bible printing and Bible distributing than ever before in our nation. We see Bibles in every bookstore - Bibles of every size, price and style. There are Bibles in almost every house in the land. But all this time I fear we are in danger of forgetting that to HAVE the Bible is one thing, and to READ it quite another.
When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas.
Human knowledge has been changing from the word go and people in certain respects behave more rationally than they did when they didn't have it. They spend less time doing rain dances and more time seeding clouds.
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