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About this quote

What does it mean?
Ideas are truly tested and refined through public challenge.
In plain terms
Public scrutiny makes ideas stronger.
What can you take from it?
Face opposition to grow ideas.

Where it applies

  • intellectual debate
  • public leadership

Putting it to work

  • seeking feedback
  • building conviction

Questions to consider

  • Does opposition make your ideas better?
  • How do you handle public criticism?

Another view

Not all mobs are fair; some crush good ideas unfairly.

More from Ralph Waldo Emerson

  1. We boil at different degrees.

    Permalink to quote #242
  2. The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.

    Permalink to quote #244
  3. God may forgive sins, he said, but awkwardness has no forgiveness in heaven or earth.

    Permalink to quote #241

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