Some men, at the approach of a dispute, neigh like horses.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that some individuals react to conflicts or disputes in a way that is loud and unrefined, similar to horses neighing.
Ralph Waldo Emerson uses this metaphor to illustrate how certain people respond to disagreements or confrontations with brashness and noise, rather than with reasoned dialogue. The comparison to horses emphasizes a lack of self-control and an instinctual rather than thoughtful reaction, suggesting that in disputes, some individuals prefer to make a scene rather than engage in meaningful discussion.
In practice
This quote can be used in a debate to emphasize the importance of calm communication over loud arguments.
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?
An animal is equipped for sustaining its life; its senses provide it with an automatic code of action, an automatic knowledge of what is good for it or evil... Man has no automatic code of survival. His particular distinction from all other living species is the necessity to act in the face of alternatives by means of volitional choice.
Humans are, by nature, pattern-seeking, storytelling animals, and we are quite adept at telling stories about patterns whether they exist or not.
One must live to build one's house, and not build one's house to live in.
I have tried drugs and a little of everything else, and there is nothing in the world more soul-satisfying than having the kingdom of God building inside you and growing.
That's what tyrants do, I guess. They make you covet their attention; they make you confuse attention for mercy.
We were put here as witnesses to the miracle of life. We see the stars, and we want them. We are beholden to give back to the universe. If we make landfall on another star system, we become immortal.
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