If government knew how, I should like to see it check, not multiply, the population. When it reaches its true law of action, every man that is born will be hailed as essential.
Interpretation
Emerson advocates for a governance that cherishes the value of each individual's birth and contribution to society, rather than promoting an unchecked increase in population.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the importance of recognizing each individual's significance from the moment of birth. He critiques the idea of population growth as a mere statistic, suggesting that a wise government should instead cultivate an environment where each person is seen as essential to the fabric of society. Rather than simply multiplying numbers, the focus should be on nurturing the potential and contributions of every person, reflecting a deeper understanding of humanity's role in the world.
In practice
In a speech about sustainable development, one could quote Emerson to highlight the importance of valuing each individual's contribution to 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?
I am convinced that human life is filled with many pure, happy, serene examples of insincerity, truly splendid of their kind-of people deceiving one another without (strangely enough) any wounds being inflicted, of people who seem unaware even that they are deceiving one another.
I say no body of men are fit to make Presidents, judges and generals, unless they themselves supply the best specimens of the same; and that supplying one or two such specimens illuminates the whole body for a thousand years.
One of the greatest opportunities to live our values-or betray them-lies in the food we put on our plates.
The greatest wisdom is to make the enjoyment of the present the supreme object of life; because that is the only reality, all else being merely the play of thought. On the other hand, such a course might just as well be called the greatest folly: for that which in the next moment exists no more, and vanishes utterly, like a dream, can never be worth a serious effort.
Yes, the world may aspire to vacuousness, lost souls mourn beauty, insignificance surrounds us. Then let us drink a cup of tea. Silence descends, one hears the wind outside, autumn leaves rustle and take flight, the cat sleeps in a warm pool of light. And, with each swallow, time is sublimed.
Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being.
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