The reason why all men honor love is because it looks up, and not down; aspires and not despairs.
Interpretation
Love is a powerful force that inspires and uplifts people, promoting hope and aspiration.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson highlights the admirable qualities of love, suggesting that it inherently seeks elevation and positivity. He contrasts love's uplifting nature with despair, indicating that love encourages individuals to look for the best in themselves and each other, thus fostering hope and aspiration rather than hopelessness.
In practice
This quote would be perfect for a wedding speech to celebrate the power of love in uniting two people.
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?
Extend the boundaries of the glowing kingdom of your love, gradually including your family, your neighbors, your community, your country, all countries -- all living sentient creatures.
What are you thinking?β She asks. -That you are beautiful. That not everyone could see it. I almost became the kind of person who could not.
The true lover realizes that freedom is needed for loyalty to blossom.
Come not, when I am dead, To drop thy foolish tears upon my grave, To trample round my fallen head, And vex the unhappy dust thou wouldst not save. There let the wind sweep and the plover cry; But thou, go by. Child, if it were thine error or thy crime I care no longer, being all unblest; Wed whom thou wilt, but I am sick of Time, And I desire to rest. Pass on, weak heart, and leave me where I lie: Go by, go by.
That is love, to give away everything, to sacrifice everything, without the slightest desire to get anything in return.3
In a competition of love we'll all share in the victory, no matter who comes first
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