Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins
Interpretation
The presence of others often leads to insincerity in our words and actions.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that while an individual may express genuine thoughts and feelings when alone, the dynamics change upon the arrival of another person. In social situations, external pressures and the desire to be perceived positively can lead to a façade, highlighting the inherent struggle between our true selves and the personas we create in the presence of others.
In practice
In a discussion about authenticity in relationships during a workshop.
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?
We must differentiate between guilt and duty. The soldier on the front, like the common man, who does his duty everywhere, should not be held responsible for the actions of a few who also called themselves Germans.
Act as if the maxim of your action were to become through your will a be general natural law.
You are afraid to die, and youβre afraid to live. What a way to exist.
I urge you to ask yourself just how honorable it is to preside over the abuse and suffering of animals.
Let us first be as simple and well as Nature ourselves, dispel the clouds which hang over our brows, and take up a little life into our pores. Do not stay to be an overseer of the poor, but endeavor to become one of the worthies of the world.
The street finds its own uses for things.
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