When good is near you, when you have life in yourself, it is not by any known or accustomed way; you shall not discern the foot-prints of any other; you shall not see the face of man; you shall not hear any name; the way, the thought, the good, shall be wholly strange and new. It shall exclude example and experience.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that true goodness and life come from a unique and personal journey, unfiltered by past experiences or societal examples.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote reflects the idea that the essence of goodness and vital life experiences are not found through imitation of others or established norms. Instead, they manifest as fresh encounters that are distinctively one’s own. Emerson invites us to embrace the unfamiliar and the novel aspects of our journey, suggesting that true fulfillment and understanding come from original thought and personal discovery rather than relying on past examples or societal expectations.
In practice
In a motivational speech about self-discovery, one might quote Emerson to reinforce the idea that true understanding comes from personal experience rather than societal norms.
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 complain today that ministers do not know how to preach; but is it not equally true that our congregations do not know how to hear?
I worked in television; I'm the Failed Pilot Queen, I've done so many television shows, pilots, theater ... when you do it for so long, I'm telling you, you get to the point where it becomes varied because you take what's available for a number of reasons. It's just an occupational hazard.
Please don't settle for happiness. It's not good enough. Of course you deserve it, but if that's all you have in mind - happiness - I want to suggest to you that personal success devoid of meaningfulness, free of a steady commitment to social justice - that's more than a barren life. It's a trivial one.
Sometimes when I'm talking, my words can't keep up with my thoughts. I wonder why we think faster than we speak. Probably so we can think twice.
"Softly, softly, catchee monkey," is the West African rendering of a very valuable precept. An awful lot of men fail through lack of patient persistence.
If we are silent when we should speak, we are not living the Discipline of silence. If we speak when we should be silent, we again miss the mark.
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