What is the foundation of that interest all men feel in Greek history, letters, art, and poetry, in all its periods, from the Heroic or Homeric age down to the domestic life of the Athenians and Spartans, four or five centuries later? What but this, that every man passes personally through a Grecian period.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the universal relevance of Greek history and culture to individual human experiences.
Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects on the enduring interest that every person has in Greek history and culture, suggesting that this fascination arises from the personal connection each individual feels to the Grecian era. He proposes that everyone passes through their own 'Grecian period'βa time when the ideals, achievements, and explorations of ancient Greece resonate with their own life experiences, thereby illustrating the timeless influence of Greek civilization on humanity.
In practice
During a lecture on the influences of ancient civilizations on modern society.
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?
Every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.
For men are not equal: thus speaks justice.
...What you are is a force--a force that makes it possible for your body to live, a force that makes it possible for your whole mind to dream...You are life
As a historian of American and African-American religion, I know that the Trayvon Martin moment is just one moment in a history of racism in America that, in large part, has its underpinnings in Christianity and its history. Those of us who teach American Religion have a responsibility to tell all of the story, not just the nice touchy-feely parts.
An unexamined life is a life of no account.
The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention argues that no two countries that are both part of the same global supply chain will ever fight a war as long as they are each part of that supply chain.
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