Never read any book that is not a year old.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that one should focus on timeless knowledge rather than fleeting trends.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote highlights the importance of reading works that have stood the test of time, implying that older literature often contains enduring wisdom and insights that are more relevant than contemporary texts that may be subject to current fads. This emphasizes the value of seeking knowledge that has been established and respected over the years, encouraging readers to appreciate foundational ideas that continue to resonate today.
In practice
During a book club meeting, you might say, 'As Ralph Waldo Emerson wisely noted, never read any book that is not a year old.'
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?
Good men and bad men differ radically. Bad men never appreciate kindness shown them, but wise men appreciate and are grateful. Wise men try to express their appreciation and gratitude by some return of kindness, not only to their benefactor, but to everyone else
If something's going to happen for you, it will, you can't make it happen. And it never does happen until you're past the point where you care whether it happens or not. I guess it's for our own good that it always happens that way, because after you stop wanting things is when having them won't make you go crazy.
There is no university for a Christian, like that of sorrow and trial
Don't look for any other state than the one you are in now; otherwise, you will set up inner conflict and unconscious resistance. Forgive yourself for not being at peace. The moment you completely accept your non-peace, your non-peace becomes transmuted into peace. Anything you accept fully will get you there, will take you into peace. This is the miracle of surrender.
Television is bubble-gum for the mind.
When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions.
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