To a dull mind all of nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.
Interpretation
The way we perceive the world depends on our mental clarity and openness.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson highlights the contrast between a closed, dull mindset and an enlightened, open one. It suggests that those who are mentally engaged and enlightened can see beauty and vibrancy in the world around them, while those with a dull mind may perceive everything as heavy and lifeless.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to inspire people to open their minds to new experiences.
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 mountain gorilla faces grave danger of extinction - primarily because of the encroachments of native man upon its habitat - and neglect by civilized man, who does not conscientiously protect even the limited areas now allotted for the gorilla's survival.
At times I feel as if I am spread out over the landscape and inside things, and am myself living in every tree, in the plashing of the waves, in the clouds and the animals that come and go, in the procession of the seasons.
How right it is to love flowers and the greenery of pines and ivy and hawthorn hedges; they have been with us from the very beginning.
Nature Cure is so simple easy and cheap.....this system of treatment should be used.
To dwellers in a wood, almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature.
If you lose touch with nature you lose touch with humanity. If there's no relationship with nature then you become a killer; then you kill baby seals, whales, dolphins, and man either for gain, for "sport," for food, or for knowledge. Then nature is frightened of you, withdrawing its beauty. You may take long walks in the woods or camp in lovely places but you are a killer and so lose their friendship. You probably are not related to anything to your wife or your husband.
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