Whence, then, this worship of the past? The centuries are conspirators against the sanity and authority of the soul.
Interpretation
This quote questions the reverence for past traditions and beliefs, suggesting they can undermine personal authority and clarity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson in this quote critiques the tendency to idolize the past, implying that such veneration can lead to a loss of personal sanity and undermine oneβs inner authority. He suggests that the weight of historical precedents can cloud judgment and obstruct genuine self-awareness, thus challenging individuals to seek their own truths rather than adhere blindly to what has been established.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the importance of personal beliefs versus societal expectations.
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?
Every one should find some suitable time, day or night, to sink into his depths, each according to his own fashion. Not every one is able to engage in contemplative prayer.
Everything passes. Nobody gets anything for keeps. And that's how we've got to live.
A man should ever, as much as in him lieth, be ready booted to take his journey, and above all things look he have then nothing to do but with himself.
If you look within the United States, religion seems to make you a better person. Yet atheist societies do very well - better, in many ways, than devout ones.
Listening is an activity. It's not passive. We are creating the world by listening all the time.
She thought how strange it would be if she ever said 'Hello' to him. One did not greet oneself each morning.
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