This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
Interpretation
Emerson emphasizes the importance of living in the present moment and cherishing today rather than dwelling on the past.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote highlights the value of the present day, encouraging individuals to appreciate the opportunities and joys it brings. He suggests that today is precious and filled with hope, implying that one should not let regret over the past diminish the significance of the current moment. By calling attention to the idea that each day holds potential invitations for new experiences, he advocates for a mindful approach to life, focusing on what can be done now rather than lamenting what has been lost.
In practice
In a motivational speech about mindfulness, one might say: 'As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, this day is all that is good and fair, so letβs embrace it fully.'
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?
Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying.
Man can and does rationalize his sins. He finds reasons for all his weakness, invents excuses that first calm and then deaden his conscience. He blames God, society, education, and environment for his wrong doing.
Maybe we can show government how to operate better as a result of better architecture. Eventually, I think Chicago will be the most beautiful great city left in the world.
The custom of Mother Church in baptizing infants is certainly not to be scorned, nor is it to be regarded in any way as superfluous, nor is it to be believed that its tradition is anything except apostolic.
You can know all there is to know about life and mankind, but what do you really know about yourself?
He who has attained the freedom of reason to any extent cannot, for a long time, regard himself otherwise than as a wanderer on the face of the earth - and not even as a traveler towards a final goal, for there is no such thing. But he certainly wants to observe and keep his eyes open to whatever actually happens in the world; therefore he cannot attach his heart too firmly to anything individual; he must have in himself something wandering that takes pleasure in change and transitoriness.
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