The universal soul is the alone creator of the useful and the beautiful; therefore to make anything useful or beautiful, the individual must be submitted to the universal mind.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of aligning individual creativity with a greater universal consciousness to create value and beauty.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote reflects the idea that creativity and beauty are not solely the products of individual effort, but rather arise from a deep connection to a universal source of knowledge and inspiration. It suggests that to create something truly valuable or aesthetically pleasing, one must transcend personal limitations and engage with the collective wisdom of the universal mind, promoting a sense of unity and collaboration in the act of creation.
In practice
This quote can inspire artists to connect with a deeper source of creativity during a workshop.
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 chief product of an automated society is a widespread and deepening sense of boredom.
A good End cannot sanctify evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it.
Defend our liberties and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindred and tongues.
As we manipulate everyday words, we forget that they are fragments of ancient and eternal stories, that we are building our houses with broken pieces of sculptures and ruined statues of gods as the barbarians did.
Tears throw a veil over our faults and allow us to accuse fate without fear or contradiction.
Death is an endless night so awful to contemplate that it can make us love life and value it with such passion that it may be the ultimate cause of all joy and all art.
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