We rail at trade, but the historian of the world will see that it was the principle of liberty; that it settled America, and destroyed feudalism, and made peace and keeps peace; that it will abolish slavery.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on how trade has historically contributed to liberty and social progress.
Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the dual nature of trade, portraying it as a force that has both established freedom and advanced societal change throughout history. He argues that trade is not merely an economic activity but a crucial element in shaping civilizations, leading to the fall of feudal systems, promoting peace, and eventually contributing to the abolition of slavery, thus highlighting its transformative impact on human society.
In practice
During a lecture on economic history, this quote can be used to illustrate the positive impacts of trade.
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?
The tyranny imposed on the soul by anger, or fear, or lust, or pain, or envy, or desire, I generally call 'injustice.'
The heart is just the heart; thoughts and feelings are just thoughts and feelings. Let things be just as they are.
This law … defines the limits of competition in the community of life. You may compete to the full extent of your capabilities, but you may not hunt down your competitors or destroy their food or deny them access to food. In other words, you may compete but you may not wage war.
If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you're needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.
Stripped of all its covering, the naked question is, whether ours is a federal or consolidated government; a constitutional or absolute one; a government resting solidly on the basis of the sovereignty of the States, or on the unrestrained will of a majority; a form of government, as in all other unlimited ones, in which injustice, violence, and force must ultimately prevail.
There was a little corner of his mind that was still his own, and light came through it, as though a chink in the dark: light out of the past. It was actually pleasant, I think, to hear a kindly voice agin, bringing up memories of wind, and trees, and sun on the grass, and such forgotten things.
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