Every burned book or house enlightens the world; every suppressed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side.
Interpretation
Censorship and destruction of knowledge ultimately lead to greater understanding and awareness.
In this quote, Emerson highlights the paradox of censorship and destruction—the act of burning books or suppressing words may temporarily silence ideas, but it also sparks curiosity and awareness in society. It suggests that the quest for knowledge and truth is resilient and that the consequences of such actions can have far-reaching effects, prompting individuals to seek out forbidden knowledge and challenge the status quo.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of free speech and expression.
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?
To err is to wander, and wandering is the way we discover the world; and, lost in thought, it is also the way we discover ourselves. Being right might be gratifying, but in the end it is static, a mere statement. Being wrong is hard and humbling, and sometimes even dangerous, but in the end it is a journey, and a story.
It is better to be silent and be real than to talk and not be real.
Shallow brooks murmur most, deep and silent slide away.
Incestuous, homogeneous fiefdoms of self-proclaimed expertise are always rank-closing and mutually self-defending, above all else.
A man should remove not only unnecessary acts, but also unnecessary thoughts, for then superfluous activity will not follow.
To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
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