We are reformers in the spring and summer, but in autumn we stand by the old. Reformers in the morning, and conservers at night.
Interpretation
We often embrace new ideas and change during the bright and energetic times of our lives, but revert to tradition and stability as circumstances shift.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects on the dual nature of human behavior regarding change and tradition. He suggests that individuals often embody the spirit of reform and progress during the 'spring and summer' phases of life, symbolizing youth and enthusiasm, while they tend to cling to established norms and conservatism during the 'autumn' and 'night,' representing maturity and the desire for stability. This duality highlights the balance between innovation and tradition in human experiences.
In practice
During a motivational speech about embracing new ideas while respecting past achievements.
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?
We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.
If you wish to understand what Revolution is, call it Progress; and if you wish to understand what Progress is, call it Tomorrow.
Human beings do metamorphose. They change their identity constantly. However, each new identity thrives on the delusion that it was always in possession of the body it has just conquered.
The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.
You must constantly ask yourself these questions: Who am I around? What are they doing to me? What have they got me reading? What have they got me saying? Where do they have me going? What do they have me thinking? And most important, what do they have me becoming? Then ask yourself the big question: Is that okay? Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.
I want to say that probably 24 hours after I told CBS that I was stepping down at my 65th birthday, I was already regretting it. And I regretted it every day since.
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