Commerce is of trivial import; love, faith, truth of character, the aspiration of man, these are sacred.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that material wealth is insignificant compared to love, truth, and moral integrity, which hold sacred value.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson contrasts the triviality of commerce and material pursuits with the profound importance of love, faith, and truthfulness in one's character. He asserts that these deeper human aspirations and virtues are what truly matter and hold sacred significance in our lives, suggesting that one's character and relationships are far more valuable than any commercial success or material gain.
In practice
In a speech about personal values, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of integrity over material success.
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?
I get the urge for going/But I never seem to go.
Faith is in the soul. Belief is thought. Faith is so rich. Faith gives me my spiritual self.
[H]owever weak our country may be, I hope we shall never sacrifice our liberties.
Sincerity is the same in a corner alone, as it is before the face of the world. It knows not how to wear two vizards, one for an appearance before men, and another for a short snatch in a corner; but it must have God, and be with him in the duty of prayer. It is not lip-labour that it doth regard, for it is the heart that God looks at, and that which sincerity looks at, and that which prayer comes from, if it be that prayer which is accompanied with sincerity.
Believing there's no God means I can't really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That's good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.
In everything that moves through the universe, I see my own body, and in everything that governs the universe, my own soul. All men are my brethren, and all things my companions.
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