Ralph Waldo Emerson on Judgment

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON on Judgment

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul. -Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Emerson was an American poet, essayist, and philosopher, who believed that nature is a manifestation of the spirit. He once remarked that the tree or the brook has no duplicity, nor pretentiousness. They’re simply unique entities of the same impression of life.

Emerson writes, “All the thoughts of a turtle are turtle’s, and of a rabbit, rabbit’s. But a man on the other hand, is broken and dissipated by the giddiness of his will.

He throws himself into his judgments.

Respectively, his genius leads him one way, and his trade or politics in another.

“Good judgment” observed Emerson, “comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.”

The Roman stoic philosopher, Epictetus would remind us that “It isn’t events themselves that disturb people, but only their judgments about them.”

Often, we say to ourselves. “How could this have happened?”

Or “It’s so and so’s fault.”

And as result, we continue to perceive the negative, while over exaggerate the disturbance then blaming it on the event.

In doing so, Epictetus would say, “our inner fortress, our inner Citadel has been breached from within.”

“Not by iron or fire, explains Epictetus in Discourses 4.1., but by judgements. It is from this front that we must seize the fortress and throw out the tyrants.”

To put this important information to work in your life, apply the following:

• Make every effort to look for that perfection rather than being misled by appearances. As Emerson puts it, “adopt the pace of nature, for her secret is patience.”
• Refuse to make judgments about the importance or value of others based on what you have come to evaluate as “normal.” Simply realize that no one is superior in the invisible realm of the spirit and that our outer shells all come in various shapes, sizes, and conditions.

Begin to practice the wisdom that “There are many things I do not understand, and I like it that way.” “For every minute you are angry,” says Emerson, “you lose sixty seconds of happiness and peace of mind.”

Thank you for reading, till next time, stay strong, and God bless.