166 things from this book went into her brain. Here are the first 6.
Ralph Waldo Emerson asks how shall I live. He says the great questions of the age are too large to solve, so the practical task is to conduct your own life well.
Emerson suggests that when two truths seem to clash, such as fate and freedom, you take each one seriously in turn, and a reasonable balance can appear over time.
Emerson observes that every spirit builds its house, but afterwards the house confines the spirit. Our habits and surroundings can end up limiting us.
Emerson argues that our own power is only half of what shapes us, with circumstance the other half. Knowing the limits you cannot change is part of living well.
Emerson says that whatever limits us, we call Fate, and that the limits grow finer as we refine ourselves. He suggests we learn the shape of our limits by pushing against them.
Emerson holds that what is useful lasts and what is hurtful sinks over time, so wrongdoing tends to meet its consequences sooner or later.
Emerson insists that power matters as much as limitation. We should respect the natural limits of life, but a person is more than nature and holds both within.
Emerson argues that thinking and choosing keep a person free even inside fate. Dwelling too much on destiny, he warns, breeds meanness and invites the evils we fear.
Emerson says the right use of fate is to lift our conduct to the scale of nature, meeting danger with steady courage for the sake of duty.
Emerson says real insight, seeing the unity and law in things, lifts a person out of servitude. When truth comes to us, we expand to its size.
Emerson says a person who sees the larger truth grows less egotistical and cares more for principle than for personal pride.
Emerson holds that thought and will cannot be separated. Of two people each following their own thought, the one with the deeper thought will be stronger.
Emerson argues that a strong will rests on a unity of purpose and a belief in something true. A will that rests only on self-interest can be bought or bent.
Emerson says insight is not yet will. Goodness dies in wishes unless perception is joined to energy, and no one truly grasps a truth until they are ready to act on it.
Emerson sees limits as the measure of a growing person. Like a child's height marks on a wall, we outgrow them, and the next wall is always bigger.
Emerson says that what threatens us can become strength once we understand it. Learn to swim and trim your boat, and the wave that drowned others can carry you.
Emerson says life is self-direction from the first moment. A person is not contained in their skin, but reaches outward and makes their own surroundings.
Emerson argues that events fit a person like a skin, shaped by their own thoughts and character, so we are less at the mercy of chance than we think.
Emerson says a person's fortunes are the fruit of their character, so the surest way to better circumstances is often to become a better person.
Emerson says the power to shape hard material to a purpose is a measure of the mind. A weak person is shaped by the earth, while a strong one shapes it.
Emerson says a person's character shows in everything they do, so a fault of temper will turn up in speech, work and kindness. Seeing that pattern helps us see our own.
Emerson notes that what we seek we tend to find, so it is wise to ask only for high things, since we may well get them.
Emerson says a good intention clothes itself with sudden power, and that what lames or paralyses us can draw out a hidden strength in return.
Emerson says life is a search after power. A person should value events and possessions for the power they add to the self, not for their own sake.
Emerson says successful people believe things go by law rather than luck, and that nothing is got for nothing. They adjust their efforts to the obstacles in front of them.
Emerson says a person who is in step with how things work can read what is coming and stands ready for whatever happens to them.
Emerson says an enterprising person brings life into a stagnant place, and that a good leader often gathers others who build on their work.
Emerson says a person of force sees the possible farms and houses where a feeble person sees only what is already built. Presence of mind often decides who leads.
Emerson observes that resilient people meet setbacks with fresh interest, and that a hurt can leave them tougher rather than discouraged.
Emerson says strong natures with great impulses have great resources and return from far, while timid conservatism disgusts the young and drives them to extremes.
Emerson says energy is good when it is put in the right place, but excess turns it against its owner, like an axe that chops off one's own fingers. Learn to direct power well.
Emerson recounts Michelangelo mixing his own paints to learn fresco, and a painter's advice that a failure usually means someone dreamed instead of working. Success comes from showing up and doing the work.
Emerson says concentration is the one prudence in life and dissipation the one evil. Choose your work, take what you can carry, and drop the rest, because only then does knowing turn into doing.
Emerson recalls that Newton, asked how he made his discoveries, said he kept his mind always intending on the matter. Steady attention is the secret of strength in most affairs.
Emerson says in fast-moving affairs any decision is better than none. A person who brings all they know to bear on the instant is worth a dozen who know as much but think slowly.
Emerson quotes Democritus that more people are made good by practice than by nature, and says mastery comes from thousands of repetitions, not one bright spark.
Emerson says every achievement is paid for with spent energy. A person is only efficient as a vessel of that force, so it is worth husbanding carefully and not wasting.
Emerson says success is not an accident. If the laws of effort can be read, then success is within reach of anyone willing to learn them.
Emerson says a person is not whole until they can earn a blameless living, and that a good citizen pays their debt and adds something to the common wealth.
Emerson says wealth comes from applying the mind to nature. Getting ahead depends less on hard labour or saving than on good order, timing and being in the right place.
Emerson says the merchant's craft is bringing a thing from where it abounds to where it is needed. Real wealth extends our powers, like tools that give us hands and eyes.
Emerson says the richest person is the one who can draw on the faculties and labour of many people, in distant places and past times, not just the one who has most.
Emerson says the world is a tool-chest, and a person succeeds in proportion to how well their faculties are married to nature and to the things they can take into themselves.
Emerson says a well-done piece of work gives its doer a quiet dignity. A craftsperson at the bench can deal on even terms with anyone, because good work answers for them.
Emerson says the true use of wealth is power to give form to one's thoughts, not to chase show and pleasure. He calls the fine candy of luxury a poor aim.
Emerson notes that rival ambitions check one another, as trees in a forest stop any one of them taking all the sap, so the wider world is kept in balance.
Emerson says to be truly rich is to have a ticket of admission to the best works of every culture. The curious traveller takes the whole world into their life.
Ralph Waldo Emerson held that wealth belongs with those who can administer it well, since a rich person is one whose work opens a path for others.
Ralph Waldo Emerson saw property as an intellectual production, built from the accumulated skill of many people over many years.
Ralph Waldo Emerson saw good luck as another name for tenacity of purpose, and held that a sound trader sticks to facts and takes small, sure gains.
Ralph Waldo Emerson held that money is a representative of value, so its worth grows with the honesty, skill and care of the community that uses it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that cheap-looking conveniences often hide costs somewhere else, and that money and power are never really cheap.
Ralph Waldo Emerson held that real waste is effort spent off the line of one's career, so a person should do the work that fits their own talent.
Ralph Waldo Emerson advised spending on the work that is truly yours and cutting false expenses, since vanity costs far more than a good pride does.
Ralph Waldo Emerson held that lasting wealth comes from the relation of income to spending, since bigger incomes do not help when spending grows faster.
Ralph Waldo Emerson warned that no property stays sound without constant watching, because things change in your hands and leak away if left alone.
Ralph Waldo Emerson praised the engineer who followed the natural valley rather than forcing a straight line, and found the result safer and cheaper.
Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that people who buy a dream property often ignore practical needs, and that those who know the ground are worth listening to.
Ralph Waldo Emerson held that in economy, as in friendship or justice, you get back the same kind of thing you put in.
Ralph Waldo Emerson urged people to spend their energy on power rather than pleasure, and to keep reinvesting what they gain so it grows into lasting capital.
