Pines a thousand years old. Every year they must go farther for them: they recede, like beavers and Indians, before the white man.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the gradual loss of natural and indigenous elements due to the expansion of society.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote highlights the inevitability of change and loss in nature, as ancient pines, symbolizing enduring natural beauty and the indigenous people, are forced to retreat in the face of advancing civilization represented by 'the white man.' This serves as a poignant reminder of the consequences of human progress on the environment and native cultures.
In practice
In a speech about environmental preservation, I might cite this quote to stress the importance of protecting our natural resources.
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?
And where she went, the flowers took thickest root, As she had sow'd them with her odorous foot.
All the world was before me and every day was a holiday, so it did not seem important to which one of the world's wildernesses I first should wander.
If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.
When wheat is ripening properly, when the wind is blowing across the field, you can hear the beards of the wheat rubbing together. They sound like the pine needles in a forest. It is a sweet, whispering music that once you hear, you never forget.
If one truly loves nature one finds beauty everywhere.
Climate change, if unchecked, is an urgent threat to health, food supplies, biodiversity, and livelihoods across the globe.
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