A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, which has no lustre as you turn it in your hand until you come to a particular angle; then it shows deep and beautiful colors. There is no adaptation or universal applicability in men, but each has his special Talent, and the mastery of Successful men consists in adroitly keeping themselves where and when that turn shall be oftenest to be practiced.
Interpretation
People have unique talents that may not always be visible until placed in the right circumstances.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson highlights the idea that every individual possesses special talents that might remain hidden until they are in the right environment or situation. Just as a piece of Labrador spar reveals its beauty from a specific angle, a person's true potential can be recognized when positioned correctly. Emerson suggests that successful individuals know how to place themselves in situations that allow their unique abilities to shine, demonstrating the importance of opportunity and context in realizing one's capabilities.
In practice
During a motivational speech about finding your strengths.
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?
Expressing thankfulness in advance is the way of all Masters. So do not wait for a thing to happen and then give thanks. Give thanks before it happens, and watch energies swirl! To thank God before something occurs is an act of extraordinary faith. And that, of course, is where the power comes from.
Who makes us ignorant? We ourselves. We put our hands over our eyes and weep that it is dark.
Can you gather your vital breath and yet be tender like a newborn baby?
Little self-denials, little honesties, little passing words of sympathy, little nameless acts of kindness, little silent victories over favorite temptations-these are the silent threads of gold which, when woven together, gleam out so brightly in the pattern of life that God approves.
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
...to many it is not knowledge but the quest for knowledge that gives greater interest to thought-to travel hopefully is better than to arrive.
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