At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closet door and say,—'Come out unto us.' But keep thy state; come not into their confusion. The power men possess to annoy me I give them by a weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through my act.
Interpretation
Emerson emphasizes the importance of maintaining inner peace despite external distractions and demands.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects on the overwhelming nature of worldly distractions and pressures that seek to pull individuals away from their inner state of tranquility. He advises against succumbing to these external calls for attention and instead advocates for the preservation of one's own composure and focus. Emerson asserts that the annoyance we feel from others arises from allowing them access to our minds through curiosity and engagement. Thus, by asserting our autonomy and not yielding to chaos, we can maintain a sense of personal power and clarity.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal empowerment and focus.
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?
To be wholly devoted to some intellectual exercise is to have succeeded in life.
Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Day by day, and at the end of the day-if you live long enough-like most people, you will get out of life what you deserve.
Find the best in everybody. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out.
A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise.
Long for what is real. You will then have no time for worrying over what may never happen.
Like Musa you too will be saved from the Sea. Just look through it and see Him. Then the illusion will crumble and you'll be left with the only Reality: Him.
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