A vivid thought brings the power to paint it; and in proportion to the depth of its source is the force of its projection.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that the strength of our thoughts determines the impact they have when expressed. The deeper the thought, the more power it holds.
Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the importance of the quality and depth of our thoughts in this quote. When a thought is vivid and well-formed, it possesses the potential to be expressed creatively and effectively. The deeper the source of this thought, which can refer to personal experiences, knowledge, or understanding, the greater its ability to influence and inspire others. Emerson's insights highlight the connection between inner contemplation and outward expression, suggesting that truly impactful ideas originate from profound contemplation.
In practice
During a motivational speech emphasizing the power of imagination.
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?
Propaganda is to a democracy what violence is to a dictatorship.
A Christian is not someone who never goes wrong, but one who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin again, because the Christ-life is inside him.
There is object proof that homosexuality is more interesting than heterosexuality. It's that one knows a considerable number of heterosexuals who would wish to become homosexuals, whereas one knows very few homosexuals who would really like to become heterosexuals.
If Henry Miller often sounded like a village idiot, it is because, like Whitman, he was the rest of the village as well.
Throughout history, every mystery ever solved has turned out to be NOT magic.
The world is full of things that upset people. But most of us deal with it and move on and don't try and burn the planet down.
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