In the great books of India, an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence, which in another age and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the questions that exercise us.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the profound wisdom found in ancient Indian literature, suggesting it addresses enduring human questions with depth and clarity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson highlights the significance of India's great literary works, portraying them as a voice of an ancient intelligence that grapples with profound philosophical questions. He suggests that these texts offer timeless insights into human existence, reflecting larger truths that transcend their historical and cultural contexts, thereby providing readers with guidance and perspective on the complexities of life.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of literature in understanding culture, one might reference Emerson's insights.
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?
The cause is hidden; the effect is visible to all.
The book, 'Citizen,' begins with daily encounters, little moments, places where language reveals how racism determines how we interact.
Human decision-making is complex. On our own, our tendency to yield to short-term temptations, and even to addictions, may be too strong for our rational, long-term planning.
If God is Love, He is, by definition, something more than mere kindness. And it appears, from all the records, that though He has often rebuked us and condemned us, He has never regarded us with contempt. He has paid us the intolerable compliment of loving us, in the deepest, most tragic, most inexorable sense.
Unity consciousness is a state of enlightenment where we pierce the mask of illusion which creates separation and fragmentation. Behind the appearance of separation is one unified field of wholeness. Here the seer and the scenery are one.
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.
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