When a whole nation is roaring patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and the purity of its heart.
Interpretation
Patriotism can sometimes mask the true moral integrity of a nation; one should examine deeper than surface-level expressions of love for one's country.
In this quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects on the idea that blind patriotism can prevent individuals from recognizing the ethical state of their nation. He suggests that when everyone is loudly expressing their patriotic fervor, itβs important to question whether this enthusiasm is backed by genuine moral values and purity of intent, urging people to look beyond superficial displays of loyalty to assess the true character of their country.
In practice
In a speech about national values, one might quote Emerson to remind the audience to focus on moral integrity.
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?
Like the bee gathering honey from the different flowers, the wise person _x000D_ accepts the essence of the different scriptures and sees only the good in all religions.
Sometimes we exclude things in ourselves in order to be like everybody else around us-our ethnicity, our social backgrounds, our ideas. What kind of world is it that will not allow me to be myself, and is it really good for me to be there? What part of me will die a slow death if I stay?
Many religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in a marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behaved when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse.
I have never thought, for my part, that man's freedom consists in his being able to do whatever he wills, but that he should not, by any human power, be forced to do what is against his will.
A delusion is something that people believe in despite a total lack of evidence.
The poet Melvin B. Tolson once said "A civilization is judged only in its decline." That made sense to me. I would imagine the same is true for poets and tennis players.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.