He thought it happier to be dead, To die for Beauty, than live for bread.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Emerson suggests that dying for an ideal like beauty is more fulfilling than surviving merely for physical sustenance.
- In plain terms
- It is better to die for beauty than live just to eat.
- What can you take from it?
- Ideals matter more than mere survival.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What is worth dying for?
- Is survival enough?
Another view
Romanticizing death for ideals can undermine the value of living to change things.
More from Ralph Waldo Emerson
Fear not, then, thou child infirm, There's no god dare wrong a worm.
Permalink to quote #223 Wilt thou seal up the avenues of ill? Pay every debt as if God wrote the bill.
Permalink to quote #225 Nor mourn the unalterable Days That Genius goes and Folly stays.
Permalink to quote #222
Related quotes
It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die.
Steve BikoSteve Biko quote #10 Estas que fueron pompa y alegria despertando al albor de la manana, a la tarde seran lastima vana durmiendo en brazos de la noche fria.
Pedro Calderon de la BarcaPedro Calderon de la Barca quote #1 Vanquished in life, his death By beauty made amends: The passing of his breath Won his defeated ends.
Lionel JohnsonLionel Johnson quote #2