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.
Sample comment
ReplyDelete“If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.”
ReplyDeleteThis quote addresses a feeling of losing all confidence. When a person loses confidence they may feel like everyone and everything is against them because they do not have any trust, hope or respect for themselves. With this lack of confidence may refer to it as the universe being against them. I agree with this because it is true for most people who have lost self-confidence whether they know it or not. A lot of people who lose confidence in themselves, such as Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye. Holden was over confident in the beginning with his plan to leave school and did not care about anything. Once he took action, his confidence level dropped significantly and he could not find a way to be happy. He thought that everyone he talked to was against him and everything he did was wrong in some way. Confidence is an important part of who we are and should not be lost.
“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”
ReplyDeleteThis quote talks about the beauty of peace. It says that only you yourself can bring yourself peace, and that you cannot trust anyone else to do that for you. I agree with this statement because people will always disappoint you. Although you may get sad when others do wrong to you, you should never let that destroy your inner peace. High school is a great example of when people try to ruin others sense of peace. Kids try to bring others down, and make them feel unworthy of a good life. We need to let those words roll off our backs and remember this quote, because only you can bring yourself peace.
"The only way to have a friend is to be one."
ReplyDeleteThis quote states that in order to make a friend you have to be a friend to someone. Whereas, if someone would be rude or mean to another person would only cause to fail at making a friend. I agree with this statement because in order to make a friend, you have to treat someone like a friend. The actions and words of yourself greatly impact on being a friend. If someone in school for example would treat another with disrespect and rudeness then that would be the wrong way to be or make a friend, whereas if you would treat someone with kindness and respect then you would make a friend much easier. It all comes down to this quote "The only way to have a friend is to be one."
“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.”
ReplyDeleteThis quote states that you can’t live in the past. Stop thinking about the past, and worry about the future. Know that you did what you could, you did your best, and move on. I agree with this quote for many reasons. Yes, you learn from the past, but leave it there. Stop bringing things up about yourself that you did, or wished you did. Just know that you did what you did, and you can’t change that. Each night when you go to bed, you should be happy because you know that you did your very best, and that’s all you can do. A real life scenario would be somebody who goes to bed angry or upset because of what they did that day. Then they wake up in the morning and they’re still upset from what happened the day before. “You have done what you could.” You have done everything in your ability to finish the day, now be happy about it. Move on.
“Every sweet has its sour; every evil it’s good.” He said this to show in every bad this evil or sour there is good. He is showing that in some way when you’re a bad person or bad in anyway there is a little bit of good somewhere. I personally don’t agree because even though some people may become better there still evil and you see the villain never changes he is always trying to destroy something. But in the same view if it’s sour it could become sweet if we are looking at candy. The point could be looked at different perspective depending on what you’re looking at. If you’re looking in a person stand point it takes more to change them then it does to change something that is sour to sweet. I person that went to jail for a minor charge when they get out they go back to their normal ways and do it again. The point of candy if you eat sour patch kids there sour right away but after you take the coat of sour stuff off its sweet.
ReplyDelete“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.”
ReplyDeleteThis quote means that everyone has their own beliefs on how the world works or how the world should work. I completely agree with this, there are so many hateful people in the world who want nothing more than to watch the world burn. The people that spread hate and negativity are shown to be negative people because of their outlook on the world. Everyone has a different opinion of the world, no one sees everything in black and white. People see in red, blue and maybe even gold. I saw a tweet about the hashtag pray for Paris, it said something along the lines of praying does nothing, so don’t do it. This bothered me, I myself am not religious as all but my parents are and they do believe prayer helps and I just found it rude. I wasn’t the only one appalled by this as a girl I know tweeted him and said how people had different beliefs, and no matter if you don’t agree you should always be respectful.
"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."
ReplyDeleteThis aphorism is saying that no one except you can bring true happiness to your life. Many people think that they need someone else in their life to be happy or bring them joy but many times even your best friend could cause you the most hurt because they don’t know how words or actions affect you. Some days it may seem like nothing is going your way but you have to pick yourself up and find something that will put a smile on your face and bring joy to you. I agree with this quote because I think you should never rely on anyone else to bring joy to your life because you are the only one who truly knows what makes you the happiest and what makes you the saddest. A real life scenario would be if you were supposed to be hanging out with your friends one day and they cancel on you, you can’t be sad and depressed that whole day. Find something else to do that you will enjoy and make you happy, don’t think your complete day is ruined because your friends couldn’t hang out, there is always an opportunity for something better to happen that day.
“The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.”
ReplyDeleteThis quote addresses the fact that to get a reward, there has to be work done first. The fact is you can’t be rewarded for doing nothing. He is trying to show the world which is beginning to be filled with people who think are owed things in life that, they are not. He is saying to be owed something, you have to do something worthy of being owed. Nowadays people look for handouts and think that they deserve special treatment. While in reality they have done nothing to deserve it. His goal of writing this quote was to make people think more, and start earning things for themselves, instead of asking for handouts all the time.
“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.” This means that no longer does our past define us as a person. There is good in us all and our pasts, whether they hold good or bad, are not a part of us anymore. Things that we have previously done cannot hold us back anymore. I do agree with this to a point. In my own defense, I believe your past can define you, only if you chose not to forgive yourself for the bad, and reminiscing the good. This doesn’t mean forget the good or the bad. It’s more of recognizing the problems and letting them go. An example to go with this would be modern day Germany. Germany has become one of the top economic leaders in Europe, has a set military code allowing soldiers to disobey any order that is inhumane, and a now democratic government even though they were a complete dictatorship 70 years ago under the rule of Hitler and The Nazi party. They have risen from the ashes and rebuilt themselves to now help others instead of oppressing them.
ReplyDelete“When you strike at a king, you must kill him.”
ReplyDeleteThe quote above means to follow through with your actions. Every choice that you make must be completed. Commitment is a weak point in today’s society. Many people choose to do something, but give up halfway through. A similar topic to this could be a sport. Students or athletes typically commit themselves to a sport for a variety of reasons. They go through every exercise or drill that their instructors commands them to do. Many of these exercise can be brutal and taxing to the body. Those who are determined follow through and take the pain, because they are committed to the sport they chose. However, there are some that quit at a twist of a finger. Those who quit are weak. They lack the determination to go on with what they have chosen. Actions are meant to be completed. Quitting your commitments makes you untrue to yourself. You cannot start something and stop at a certain point. It needs to be ended.
"Let not a man guard his dignity, but let his dignity guard him."
ReplyDeleteThe underlying meaning of this quote is that someone should not have to be defensive about what they are known for. They should not have to work to prove to others that they are a good person or do good things. Instead, a persons dignity should speak for itself. If a person is truly good, others will see that through how that person conducts themselves and the actions they perform. A persons dignity should be able to describe them, a person should not have to describe their dignity. I fully agree with this quote. I believe that actions speak louder than words. A real life example of this quote in motion is Mother Teresa, even saying herself that "if you are humble, nothing can touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are." Mother Teresa was known for the good work that she did and how humbly she performed these good deeds. Mother Teresa would never have to prove her pure dignity because no one would question it based on her actions.
“No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.”
ReplyDeleteThis quote stood out to me that most because it means that no matter how much someone wants something, whenever they get the chance there is no denying that they’ll take the chance that they’ve been waiting for. I agree with this quote because whenever I have gotten an opportunity that I’ve been waiting for, I took that chance without a doubt every time. A real life example that has happened to me that relates to the quote is something that happened to me today. This morning when I got I the bus, I realized that I forgot my gym uniform. When I got to school I asked as many people I could if they had a uniform that I could borrow. When I got to gym, I asked my one friend if he had spare clothes, he had red shorts. I also found a white shirt too, As soon as I see this chance I did not hesitate to use it.
“Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good.”
ReplyDeleteThis quote tells us that no human is just good and just bad. We all have our good and dark times that sometimes shows its colors. I agree, because personally I am a good person, but I can be mean as well. I have also dealt with people who are like me and people who are bad but can perform good acts. It has to do with the person and their morals really. We all have our days when we are sort of the opposite of ourselves; not saying almost because sometimes it is not a dramatic change. “No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks” (Mary Wollstonecraft). Emerson’s quote reminded me of this quote by Mary Wollstonecraft because they both explain evil and my opinion on it. The good that person might seek may not be the good Emerson is explaining, but it shows why an evil person will commit such acts. The quote shows what humans are and that we cannot be just one-sided; we can be a little bit of both.
“Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.”
ReplyDeleteIn this quote Emerson is saying that the truth is best and feels good, but then again lies can be disguised as something beautiful as well, something that makes you feel good. I agree with this because I see it on a daily basis. People lie to the ones they love to protect them. It can be something as simple as “you look great in that dress” to something as impacting as “I love you.” This makes the person feel good even if it’s not true, also known as the beautiful lie.
“The ancestor of every action is a thought.”
ReplyDeleteThis quote states that in order for an action to be made a thought must be made first. This means that before anything can happen, you have to think about it first. This being said, he states that nothing can happen without a thought being made first. Knowing that, every action that every person makes every day of their life, there has to be a thought first. I disagree with this statement because not every action has to have a thought. You can do something without thinking about it, but you will have a high possibly that it you will do it wrong. Say that your father ask you to get a tool for him. You go into the basement without thinking about where the toolbox will be and you end up not finding it. If you would have thought about where it was first and didn’t know you could have ask your father where it was and then go directly to it.
“This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.”
ReplyDeleteThis quote addresses the fact that if you take the time that you have and do with it what you enjoy, that you will have a good time and that you will not be miserable. I agree with this statement, because sometimes people complain about not being happy or not having a good time but yet it is their own fault for not doing something that they want to do. When really it is their own fault for not choosing to do anything. They could have a great time if they would just choose to say yes to do something with their friends and they could enjoy it more than they think and it could make them so much happier and they could find a new interest. Eventually people will stop asking them to go out and have a good time so then they become more miserable when they hear about other people having a good time without them. That is when you become known as the person who does not want to do anything, so why would you want to be known like that. A real life example is a kid named John going up to his friend Alex and asking if Alex wants to come and hang out with their group of friends and go on a hike and Alex saying that he does not want to go or that he is busy but then Alex sits at home and when they all see each other the day after in school and they are talking about it Alex complains about not being able to have a good time but it’s his own fault.
"To be great is to be misunderstood."
ReplyDeleteThis quote is addressing that every great person was once misunderstood. I agree with this statement completely because greatness is not always recognised. Socrates was killed for his new ideas that went against the church. Later, we found out that his theories were correct. Many other great minds had the same things happen to them. If these great scholars were ridiculed and misunderstood back when they were alive, does that mean that this would happen to great minds now?