I wish to say what I think and feel today, with the proviso that tomorrow perhaps I shall contradict it all.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the idea that thoughts and feelings are subject to change over time.
Ralph Waldo Emerson expresses the fluid nature of human thought and emotion in this quote. He acknowledges that while he wishes to express his current beliefs and feelings honestly, he also recognizes that these may evolve or change in the future, highlighting the transient nature of perception and understanding.
In practice
In a discussion about personal growth and the evolution of beliefs.
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?
Television is like the invention of indoor plumbing. It didn't change people's habits. It just kept them inside the house.
An intellectual hatred is the worst, So let her think opinions are accursed. Have I not seen the loveliest woman born Out of the mouth of Plenty's horn, Because of her opinionated mind Barter that horn and every good By quiet natures understood For an old bellows full of angry wind?
When we meet a person truly in need, do we see the face of God?
The club that kills can drive a stake into the ground to hold a shelter. The hands that build bombs can be used to build schools. The minds that coordinate the activities of violence can coordinate the activities of cooperation. When the activities of life are infused with reverence, they come alive with meaning and purpose.
An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.
Man is man because he is free to operate within a framework of his destiny. He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives. He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.