The search after the great men is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of manhood.
Interpretation
The pursuit of greatness is a youthful aspiration that becomes a profound commitment in adulthood.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects on the journey of an individual's life, suggesting that the youthful desire to seek out greatness is not merely a fleeting dream but evolves into a significant and serious endeavor during manhood. This search signifies an ongoing quest for inspiration and ideals that can shape and define one's existence, implying that the ideals we pursue in youth frame the responsibilities and pursuits we undertake in adulthood.
In practice
In a speech about personal growth, one could use this quote to inspire the audience to pursue their ideals.
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?
You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.
The greatest wealth is a poverty of desires.
I have cried even when the laugh did choke me. But no more think that I am all sorry when I cry, for the laugh he come just the same. Keep it always with you that laughter who knock at your door and say, βMay I come in?β is not true laughter. No! He is a king, and he come when and how he like. He ask no person, he choose no time of suitability. He say, βI am here.
I had become wealthy as an art dealer, but my life was never rich until I began serving in a mission and began being blessed by those that were basically hopeless. To see them have hope was the biggest blessing in my life.
Half-instructed confessors have done my soul great harm; for I could not always have such learned ones as I would have desired. They certainly did not wish to deceive me, but the fact was that they knew no better. Of something which was a venial sin, they said it was no sin, and out of a very grave mortal sin they made a venial sin. This has done me such harm, that my speaking here of so great an evil, as a warning to others, will be readily understood.
Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.
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