Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

When we are young, we spend much time and pains in filling our note-books with all definitions of Religion, Love, Poetry, Politics, Art, in the hope that, in the course of a few years, we shall have condensed into our encyclopaedia the net value of all the theories at which the world has yet arrived. But year after year our tables get no completeness, and at last we discover that our curve is a parabola, whose arcs will never meet.

When we are young, we spend much time and pains in filling o

Summary

This quote reflects on the futile effort of seeking ultimate knowledge and understanding in various aspects of life. It suggests that as young individuals, we strive to accumulate vast amounts of information, hoping to encapsulate the essence of religion, love, poetry, politics, and art in our minds. However, as time passes, we realize that our pursuit for complete knowledge is endless and unattainable. The metaphor of a parabola emphasizes the idea that our quest for wisdom is both continuous and boundless, with no finite endpoint to reach.

Topics

Life Education Truth Learning Facts Youth Philosophy Mathematics Life Lessons Self Discovery

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

Liked the quote? Share it with your friends.

Random Quotations

You can't create experience. You must undergo it.

You can't create experience. You must undergo it.

Art seduces, but does not exploit.

Art seduces, but does not exploit.

You should study the Peerage, Gerald. It is the one book a y

You should study the Peerage, Gerald. It is the one book a young man about town should know thoroughly, and it is the best thing in fiction the English have ever done.

Any mind that is capable of real sorrow is capable of good.

Any mind that is capable of real sorrow is capable of good.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

If you can actually count your money, then you're not a rich

If you can actually count your money, then you're not a rich man.

Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.

Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.

However rare true love may be, it is less so than true frien

However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Idleness is the stupidity of the body, and stupidity is the

Idleness is the stupidity of the body, and stupidity is the idleness of the mind.

Johann G. Seume

We only love truly once. It is the first time and succeeding

We only love truly once. It is the first time and succeeding passions are less uncontrolled.

Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awake

Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.

The sin of pride may be a small or a great thing in someone'

The sin of pride may be a small or a great thing in someone's life, and hurt vanity a passing pinprick, or a self-destroying or ever murderous obsession.

Wit. The salt with which the American humorist spoils his in

Wit. The salt with which the American humorist spoils his intellectual cookery by leaving it out.