“ The good are befriended even by weakness and defect. ”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Compensation (1841). copy citation
| Author | Ralph Waldo Emerson |
|---|---|
| Source | Compensation |
| Topic | weakness good |
| Date | 1841 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | in "Essays: First Series" |
| Note | |
| Weblink | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Essays:_First_Series/Compensation |
Context
“but as the royal armies sent against Napoleon, when he approached, cast down their colors and from enemies became friends, so disasters of all kinds, as sickness, offence, poverty, prove benefactors: —
"Winds blow and waters roll Strength to the brave, and power and deity, Yet in themselves are nothing."
The good are befriended even by weakness and defect. As no man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him, so no man had ever a defect that was not somewhere made useful to him. The stag in the fable admired his horns and blamed his feet, but when the hunter came, his feet saved him, and afterwards, caught in the thicket, his horns destroyed him.”
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