Coal is a portable climate. It carries the heat of the tropics to Labrador and the polar circle; and it is the means of transporting itself whithersoever it is wanted. Watt and Stephenson whispered in the ear of mankind their secret, that a half-ounce of coal will draw two tons a mile, and coal carries coal, by rail and by boat, to make Canada as warm as Calcutta, and with its comfort brings its industrial power.
Interpretation
Coal serves as a powerful means of transporting heat and energy across vast distances, playing a crucial role in industrial development.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson highlights the transformative power of coal, illustrating how it enables the transportation of heat from tropical regions to colder areas, thus altering climates and fostering industrial growth. This powerful resource not only conveys warmth but also enhances productivity and comfort, showcasing its significance in enabling civilization to thrive in diverse environments.
In practice
In a speech on energy resources, I might say, 'As Emerson noted, coal is a portable climate, enabling us to create warmth and foster industry in even the coldest regions.'
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?
According to inflation, the more than 100 billion galaxies, sparkling throughout space like heavenly diamonds, are nothing but quantum mechanics writ large across the sky. To me, this realization is one of the greatest wonders of the modern scientific age.
One lesson astronomy tells us is that we're a tiny mote in a hostile void, and help is too far away.
My complaint is that there are more books and news articles than there are primary scientific papers. I am probably the biggest critic of the hypesters, because it's dangerous when fields get overhyped.
Mathematics brought rigor to Economics. Unfortunately, it also brought mortis.
To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.
As long as scientists are free to pursue the truth wherever it may lead, there will be a flow of new scientific knowledge to those who can apply it to practical problems.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.