At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that the world often imposes trivial distractions upon us, which can obstruct our focus and clarity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote reflects the idea that in our lives, we often encounter numerous trivialities and distractions that can feel overwhelming and burdensome. It implies that these 'emphatic trifles' can conspire against our ability to engage with more significant, meaningful aspects of life, thereby urging us to maintain perspective and resist the allure of the insignificant.
In practice
During a motivational speech, to emphasize the need to prioritize what truly matters.
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?
Defining myself, as opposed to being defined by others, is one of the most difficult challenges I face.
The gods envy us. They envy us because weβre mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because weβre doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.
We live not, in reality, on the summit of a solid earth but at the bottom of an ocean of air
The FHA literally drew up the redlining map and then basically distributed - I'm sorry, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation actually did it, and then distributed to banks who used that as policy to determine how they would lend and who they would lend to. The racism in the system was pervasive and total.
The unlike is joined together, and from differences results the most beautiful harmony.
Tokenism does not change stereotypes of social systems but works to preserve them, since it dulls the revolutionary impulse.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.