We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organ of its activity. When we discern justice, when we discern truth, we do nothing by ourselves, but allow a passage to its beams. If we ask whence this comes, if we seek to pry into the soul that causes, all philosophy is at fault. Its presence or its absence is all we can affirm.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that we are all part of a greater intelligence that reveals truth and justice to us, and our understanding is a conduit for these concepts.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote reflects the idea that humanity is intertwined with a larger, intelligent force that imparts truth and justice. Rather than claiming independent knowledge or understanding, we are merely recipients of deeper truths that flow through us. This perspective challenges the pursuit of philosophical answers by emphasizing that the essence of these virtues cannot be fully understood or captured, but rather experienced as they manifest in our lives.
In practice
In a discussion about the nature of truth in a philosophy class.
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?
If you're going to be unreligious, it's likely going to be due to reflecting on it and finding some things that are hard to believe.
Death carries off a man busy picking flowers with an besotted mind, like a great flood does a sleeping village.
Whether in the intellectual pursuits of science or in the mystical pursuits of the spirit, the light beckons ahead, and the purpose surging in our nature responds.
In our corruption we perceive beauties unrevealed to ancient times.
Every harlot was a virgin once.
Let us learn from Christ how to pray, to forgive, to sow peace, and to be near those in need.
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