The unstable estimates of men crowd to him whose mind is filled with a truth, as the heaped waves of the Atlantic follow the moon.
Interpretation
True understanding and conviction attract attention and respect from others.
In this quote, Emerson suggests that individuals who possess a deep and unwavering truth in their convictions naturally draw others to them, much like the ocean's tides are influenced by the moon. This indicates that authenticity and clarity of thought create a magnetic presence that others are drawn to, regardless of fluctuating opinions.
In practice
During a motivational speech about integrity and authenticity.
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 heart surrenders everything to the moment. The mind judges and holds back.
Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.
But then anyone who's worth anything reads just what he likes, as the mood takes him, and with extravagant enthusiasm.
I once heard a learned man say, "Every evil has its remedy, except folly. To reprimand an obstinate fool or to preach to a dolt is like writing upon the water. Christ healed the blind, the halt, the palsied, and the leprous. But the fool He could not cure."
Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.
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