Here is the world, sound as a nut, perfect, not the smallest piece of chaos left, never a stitch nor an end, not a mark of haste, or botching, or second thought; but the theory of the world is a thing of shreds and patches.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the contrast between the perceived perfection of the world and the chaotic inconsistencies of human understanding.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote draws attention to the intricate relationship between the ideal perception of the world and the underlying chaos that often characterizes our understanding of it. While the world may appear flawless and ordered at first glance, the theoretical frameworks we develop are often flawed, fragmented, and imperfect. This juxtaposition encourages us to reconsider how we interpret reality and recognize that our theories may not fully encapsulate the complexities of existence.
In practice
In a discussion about philosophy and the nature of reality, this quote serves to illustrate the complexities of perception.
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 have to understand the role the landlords are playing in shaping neighborhoods, how they potentially expand or reduce inequality, how their profits are a direct result of some tenant's poverty.
So she was considering in her own mind...whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up & picking the daisies.
One fire burns out another's burning, One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish.
If you can let go of (the Tao) with your mind and surround it with your heart, it will live inside you forever.
There's guilt about our treatment of native peoples in modern intellectual life, and an unwillingness to acknowledge there could be anything good about Western culture.
But when a man’s religion becomes really frantic; when it is a positive torment to him; and in fine, makes this earth of ours an uncomfortable inn to lodge in; then I think it high time to take that individual aside and argue the point with him.
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