I covet truth; beauty is unripe childhood's cheat; I leave it behind with the games of youth.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire for truth over superficial beauty, suggesting personal growth beyond youthful illusions.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects on the importance of pursuing truth and wisdom as one matures. He contrasts the allure of beauty, which he equates to the naΓ―vetΓ© of childhood and youthful games, with the deeper and more meaningful pursuit of truth that comes with maturity. Emerson suggests that while beauty may charm and captivate in youth, it is ultimately the quest for truth that leads to a more authentic and fulfilling life.
In practice
A speaker addressing students at a graduation ceremony could use this quote to inspire them to seek deeper truths as they venture into adulthood.
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?
If they would teach us from the time we're little to meditate and get in touch with all that our souls know, we wouldn't fight so much.
True wisdom consists of tracing effects to their causes.
But it is good to be several floors up in the dead of night wondering whether you are any good or not and the only decision you can make is that you did it.
It's your own conscience That is gonna remind you That it's your heart and nobody else's That is gonna judge.
I mentioned the non-competitive spirit explicitly, because these days, excellence is a fashionable concept. But excellence is a competitive notion, and that is not what we are heading for: we are heading for perfection.
If somebody takes the time, a: to read a book that I have written, and then to b: care about it enough to write me and ask questions, surely I owe them a response.
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