Cities give us collision. 'Tis said, London and New York take the nonsense out of a man.
Interpretation
Cities expose individuals to diverse ideas and experiences, stripping away pretense.
In this quote, Emerson suggests that urban environments like London and New York create an environment where people encounter a variety of perspectives and experiences that challenge their assumptions and social facades. The 'collision' of ideas and cultures in these cities promotes authenticity and a more genuine understanding of oneself, as the hustle and bustle of city life forces individuals to confront their biases and superficialities.
In practice
In a speech about urban life, one could highlight how cities like New York and London promote personal growth through conflict and diversity.
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?
If they would rather die, . . . they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.
Rare is the union of beauty and purity.
Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders.
When you are eighty years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices.
About Superman and Batman: the former is how America views itself, the latter, darker character is how the rest of the world views America.
Waves of thought are stirring. In a twilight corner of her consciousness, one tiny fragment and another tiny fragment call out wordlessly to eachother, their spreading ripples intermingling.
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