Go to the following website to read more of Emerson's quotes: Emerson Quotes
In a comment below:
- Choose ONE of Emerson's aphorisms
- Start out by displaying your selected quote (use appropriate formatting)
- Explain what the aphorism means
- Explain why you agree or disagree
- Give a real life example or scenario to support your point
- Your response should be a solid paragraph that is at least five sentences long, not including your quote.
Sample Response:
"Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good."
This quote addresses the fact that there is a lot of negativity in the world, but we shouldn't waste our time and energy ranting about it. That only fuels more negativity. Instead, we should put our time and energy into celebrating and contributing to what is good. I agree with this statement, because although we cannot control and are not responsible for the words and actions of others, we have complete control of and complete responsibility for our own words and actions. Words can wound or heal, and choosing to encourage, uplift, inspire, and point out beauty and success is a much more honorable legacy. I'd rather be known for what I'm FOR than known for what I'm AGAINST. In light of recent terrorist attacks, social media has been riddled with cruel and hateful comments towards people of differing viewpoints. Instead of wasting time "barking against the bad," turning against each other, spreading negativity, and rewarding terrorists with spotlight and attention, we should all focus on the positive stories of heroism, sacrifice, generosity, and the beauty of good.
22 comments:
"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could."
This quote means that one should not be absorbed in the past, they should not be holding on to the past for it has already happened, and it cannot be changed. I agree with this quote, because I, myself, have allowed myself to get lost in the past, and looking back on it, I realize that it was foolish because there is nothing that I could have done to change my past. I often find that people get lost in the past, and they tend to bring up past events and wrong-doings. They hold on to these things with such intensity that it absorbs them, becoming them until that’s all they are, a product of their past and not of their present. If people simply decided to be done with their past, because they did all they could, then their lives would be much easier. No longer would they have the past weighing down on them. No longer would they have questions about what could have been done.
“Every artist was first an Amateur.”
All of those that had ended up being popular, and leading in their field had once been someone that was without profit of their work. To achieve yourself as an artist, you first have to practice and learn how to improve yourself, until you achieve yourself as a person that people want to see and hear. A prime example is many bands, people like the Beatles had first started out as a group of friends that went and performed in a small club. People had loved what they heard, and they gained enough money and influence to perform for larger, and larger crowds. Even if you may think your goal is impossible, it is important to know that others have had those same thoughts. Those people however, had achieved what they wanted by overcoming their mountain of challenges.
Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
US essayist & poet (1803 - 1882)
This quote means that we as the human society need to live a life of freedom and without regret. We should live enlightened and dare to take the risk of adventure without fear, live with a free spirit. I highly agree with this quote because I like to live my life thinking of the positive and optimistic characteristics of the universe. I believe that we need to be in touch with nature to achieve all the answers we’ve been looking for. “Live in sunshine” means to me that we need to let go of the internet and all of the corrupted media’s and just live with happiness. Nature won’t lie to you, the internet will. When I read “Swim the sea” I replayed every risk taking adventure I’ve ever done, zip-lining, sky-diving, scuba-diving, cliff diving, going on adventures for days just to find something new and do photography. Basically just take the chance and do what you love. “Drink the wild air” means to me to become united with your true being. Don’t be afraid to do anything you would like because this is your life. Why spend the rest of your life pleasing people who talk about you when you leave the room? When you die, you’re going in the casket alone anyways. Just live your life to please yourself, nobody else.
“If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.”
This quote means that if you aren’t confident in yourself, and don’t treat yourself with respect, then everybody will see that and treat you with the same way that you are treating yourself. I totally agree with this quote, every day in school you can see people getting bullied and those kids are obviously going to be upset and they are going to start looking down on themselves. In the past, I was bullied and then started to lose self-confidence and started treating myself with less respect, by doing this the “bullies” get fueled and keep breaking you down because you can’t stand up for yourself anymore. By keeping this from happening people need to see the good in themselves and stand up to people. If you have respect for yourself other people will respect you and treat you the way you want to be treated.
“Insist on yourself; never imitate... Every great man is unique.”
This quote explains the idea of uniqueness in everyone. Each and every person was created to be different than the rest. Everyone should embrace their unique qualities instead of trying to be someone they aren’t. I agree completely with this statement because sometimes imitating another to fit in can hurt you in the end. It is important to love yourself and who you are on the inside. Most times you will realize that you are better than the person you wanted to be like. For example, in today’s world almost everyone tries to be someone they aren’t. High school students want to be like others so they lose sight of who they are just to be considered “cool”. Even celebrities imitate whatever their stylist wants them to, but they really are way different. Don’t try to fit in, be yourself.
“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
This means that if you are unlikable and are incapable of being a friend to someone then you won’t have friends. I agree with this quote fully. People think that they can act anyway that they want and there will always be someone who will like them. You have to have the quality of a friend to have them. Being a friend goes both ways and is a mutual relationship. The school bully that doesn’t possess the quality of friendship doesn’t have friends and ultimately when they are no longer a bully and treat people with kindness they will have friends.
“Every sweet has its sour; every evil it’s good.” (Emerson). An aphorism is a statement of truth, or opinion expressed in a concise and witty manner, it is often applied to philosophical, or moral beliefs. I agree with the quote, as I believe that even the meanest people can become the nicest, and the nicest can also be the most evil. I for example am a pretty mean and sarcastic person most of the time, but at work I am actually pretty nice. That is how I have seen examples of this quote in real life, and why I believe it.
“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”
This quote acknowledges the fact that no one can give you the peace of mind that you are searching for other than yourself. All in all it is you who is overthinking whatever it is that has been on your mind and it is only you who can stop. This is true because you can ask anybody you want about their opinion on what you are thinking about, but the chances are you are going to get a lot of different opinions, and in the end you are still left with the battle in your own mind on what to do. I agree with this statement because I often go through situations where I have no clue what to do so I ask other people and I just get a slew of different opinions, which leaves me no more ahead than I was before and just extra frustrated. In the end it is you who has to think about what’s best for you and it’s the only thing that will give you peace.
"The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons." - Ralph Waldo Emerson.
This quote is displaying the concept that when someone is prideful or conceited nobody will feel that they are worth listening to. "Counting our spoons" means the people listening are actually doing anything but listening, even if what they are doing is considered boring. I agree with this quote because I know people who are excessively prideful, and the last thing I want to do is listen to them brag. I have come to understand that it is good to accomplish things, but wrong to damage the self-esteem of others by bragging constantly or holding your accomplishments over their heads. For example I had a friend who was very conceited, and they constantly made me feel bad because they accomplished much more than I did.
“Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.”
In this quote by Emerson, he is basically saying to not let your past hold you down. People do things wrong but it doesn’t make you a bad person. Instead, learn from what you did wrong. Give yourself some time and in that time, repair yourself. Make yourself better and turn yourself into the best you that you can be. He’s saying even after you do things wrong, it’s okay to fix yourself and become smarter and wiser with more respect for yourself than ever. When Emerson says “plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far” he doesn’t mean to literally swim, he’s saying let go of all your stress from the past and forgive yourself. He’s saying find the better you that’s in you and don’t let your past hold you down. I agree with Emerson because if you live your life in the past with regret, you will never be happy and you might not be able to accomplish what you want in life because you’re too afraid or sad to be the best that you can be. If you let go of your past, you will find yourself to be much happier and better.
"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."
This quote means that if you have done something wrong, only you can forgive yourself. Even if you hurt a person and they forgive you, you may not forgive yourself for what you have done to that person. I agree with this quote because you must learn how to forgive yourself then to be forgiven. A real scenario of bringing peace to yourself is, when a player from a team blames himself for the lost even though his teammates tell him it wasn’t their fault. Only he can bring peace to himself.
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
The quote shows that trying to be someone else or trying to conform to one group is the easiest thing to do. Being an individual and standing up for what you believe in is the most rewarding. Most of the people in our society just want to fit in and fall through the cracks, and when they see an outsider they break them down and dehumanize them for having their own emotions or opinions. When you finally break away from the crowd and be yourself, people will notice, and start to follow. Thinking for yourself can inspire other people to do the same, and make them confident in their own actions.
"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you."
Making the most of you as a person is the biggest favor you can do for yourself. Don't keep continuously putting yourself down when something goes wrong or you fall down. Beating yourself up over something in the past can tear you down as an individual. Forget about the past, and live in the future. Living in the past gets you nowhere in life. Getting a terrible grade on a test won’t kill your whole high school career as long as you forget about it, and recover on the next test. Thrive as a person, and push yourself to be the best you can. Live your life to the fullest, because life is short. You are what you make of yourself. Use failure to push yourself to be great.
"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you."
This quote means that you are an individual person, and make all of your life choices based on what will make you happy. In the end you are your own person and your happiness is key. I agree with this quote because you need to live your life to the fullest. Take every opportunity you have to achieve greatness. You need to be able to look back on your life and be happy with the opportunities you took, not feel bad about yourself for not taking the chances you had. For example when I was a little girl I turned down the opportunity to go parasailing because I was scared. Even though that is something I would have really liked to experience. I completely regretted it after I turned it down. I know it wasn’t a major opportunity, but it was a great opportunity that I might never get back.
McAllister said...
“No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.”
The quote is explaining that no one that has ever been great had complain about an opportunity that had come across them. I definitely agree with this quote because no person who’s ever wanted to be great ever cried or complained about an opportunity coming their way. They always took advantage of every opportunity that came their way and that’s why they are successful and great. If Michael Jordan went to the NBA after high school he might not have been as good but he took the opportunity to go to college and he perfected his skills and college and became one of the greatest NBA players to play the game.
“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”
This quote implies that there’s a lot of people that let negativity into their life. If you want to have peace within yourself, you have to let go of the stress and other people’s problems – negativity. I agree and disagree with this quote. I agree because you can bring peace within yourself by forgetting all the negativity in your life, or walking away from it. I disagree because some people need help from other people to be able to make peace with yourself. For example, Holden brought peace within himself when he saw how happy his sister was on the carousel and he went back home and told his family everything. Chris McCandless brought peace within himself by going “into the wild”.
“Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices”
This quotation used by Emerson means that people who display good manners may sacrifice their own morals, or their own ideas of positive ways to act to other people. I believe this is true to the degree that some people act polite without actually liking the person or situation that they are interacting with. It is common to change how you would normally act to try to impress or make a good impression on others. In real life, students may act very polite and proper to a teacher to try to make the teacher like them. In reality the student may not like the teacher and just puts on the act of fake manners. Manners are good to have, but sometimes certain situations can cause you to change yourself in order to still sound polite and proper.
“The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.”
This quote is criticizing the evolvement of civilizations throughout the world. There was (and still is) so much violence and madness that people, mostly innocent people, were being killed. Which is why Emerson said, from my interpretation in a nutshell, the human race will die being killed by others. I feel as though this statement is somewhat true because all of the deaths from mass shootings, for example, are creating hostile environments which creates more violence with those of differing views. Social media being one of the hostile environments, is fueling the negativity between the views with false statements.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
This quote by Emerson Ralph Waldo states that past and future matters very little compared to the present. Past is already happened and no one can change it. On the other hand, future that never happened yet so there is no point in wasting your time living in future. I agree with him because, if you are living in past you are depressed and if you are living in future you are too anxious, both it is not healthy. Past where yet many of us go back and replay the memory to change what have happened to make the best out of the moment but there is no point of doing that. Live the moment while you can.
“I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”
This quote has a certain irony to it. Emerson is a man who hated quotations, and yet, they are what he is best known for. He states “Tell me what you know” implying that he’d rather hear a person’s personal opinion than that of another. Using quotations can be a way for a person to hide their true feelings of a specific topic.
"To be Great is to be Misunderstood"
This quote is very straightforward, it states that those who are great are often mistaken or misunderstood, or happen to be confusing to others, or they do not fit in very well. This quote, in my opinion, rings true. If one were to look at history, and all those who were considered to be great, and one were to look into their life and how they were perceived by people, they were all made out to be insane at the time. For those people it was not until later that they were finally accepted and seen as a great mind in a certain field. An example of this would be Leonardo Da Vinci, when Da Vinci was alive and going about his works, everyone thought he was insane, when he would dissect corpses in order to better understand the human body, everyone around him thought he was a madman and frequently attempted to put a stop to it, but now thanks to him, we know of our muscle structures and how the body works. There were many others like Da Vinci, such as Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, Mahatma Ghandi, Stephen Hawking, the list goes on and on, how many of them can engage in conversation with those that we perceive as normal? I agree with Emerson wholeheartedly, to be great, is to be misunderstood.
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