The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.
Interpretation
Desiring wealth is often about seeking freedom or benefits rather than the wealth itself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote suggests that the pursuit of gold (money) is fundamentally driven by a deeper need for freedom and the benefits that wealth can provide. It emphasizes that people do not seek riches for their own sake, but rather for the opportunities and the liberation that those riches can afford them in life. This reflection on material desire invites us to consider the underlying motivations behind our pursuits and the values we attach to wealth.
In practice
During a financial seminar discussing the importance of understanding what drives financial goals.
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?
The guts carry the feet, not the feet the guts.
To have opinions is to sell out to youself. To have no opinions is to exist. To have every opinion is to be a poet.
The type and formula of most schemes of philanthropy or humanitarianism is this: A and B put their heads together to decide what C shall be made to do for D. The radical vice of all these schemes, from a sociological point of view, is that C is not allowed a voice in the matter, and his position, character, and interests, as well as the ultimate effects on society through C's interests, are entirely overlooked. I call C the Forgotten Man.
Pride, envy, avarice - these are the sparks have set on fire the hearts of all men.
Science is very good at answering the 'how' questions. 'How did the universe evolve to the form that we see?' But it is woefully inadequate in addressing the 'why' questions. 'Why is there a universe at all?' These are the meaning questions, which many people think religion is particularly good at dealing with.
The richer we have become materially, the poorer we become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly in the air like birds and swim in the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.
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