One man's justice is another's injustice; one man's beauty another's ugliness; one man's wisdom anpther's folly.
Interpretation
Perceptions of justice, beauty, and wisdom can vary greatly between individuals.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the subjective nature of human values and judgments. It suggests that what one person considers just, beautiful, or wise can be seen as unjust, ugly, or foolish by another, highlighting the complexity of human perspectives and the inherent relativism in our understanding of morality and aesthetics.
In practice
In a debate about justice, this quote could highlight the different interpretations of fairness.
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?
A good society is characterised not just by liberty but by mutual respect and responsibility. When this breaks down it takes a lot more than police officers to put things right.
What does it say about a society that it devotes more care and patience to the selection of those who handle its money than of those who handle its children?
My father was the superintendent of the churches in the state of Montana. He was content in his beliefs. He befit the term 'true Christian.' He would turn the other cheek. He was truly a man of peace.
The price paid for intellectual pacification is the sacrifice of the entire moral courage of the human mind.
Every period ruled by mystics was an era of stagnation and want, when most men were on strike against existence.
Deep down we've never been who we think we once were, and we only remember what never happened.
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