But harder still it has proved to resist and rule the dragon Money, with his paper wings. Chancellors and Boards of Trade, Pitt, Peel, and Bobinson, and their parliaments, and their whole generation, adopted false principles, and went to their graves in the belief that they were enriching the country which they were impoverishing.
Interpretation
Emerson critiques the misguided belief that the pursuit of wealth benefits society, highlighting the negative consequences of such values.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects on the struggle against the corrupting influence of money and the erroneous principles adopted by influential figures who believed that their pursuit of wealth and economic growth was beneficial to society. He suggests that these leaders have not only failed to enrich the country but have instead contributed to its impoverishment, illustrating a profound critique of materialism and the need for a principled approach to governance and economic policy.
In practice
During a debate on economic policy, one might quote Emerson to emphasize the pitfalls of prioritizing monetary gain over ethical governance.
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?
From What-is all the world of things was born But What-is sprang in turn from What-is-not.
Beauty is worse than wine, it intoxicates both the holder and beholder.
It is not the germs we need worry about. It is our inner terrain.
"This - is now my way - where is yours"? Thus did I answer those who asked me "the way". For the way - it does not exist!
I originally set out to try and save the world, but now I'm not sure I like it enough.
Men might as well be imprisoned, as excluded from the means of earning their bread.
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