Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.

In my opinion, what Ralph W. Emerson tries to say through this quote represents the duality of prudence and imprudence.

Firstly, prudence stands for the main goal of culture, that is the man’s perfection. But in order to obtain this we must not try to write the laws of anyone’s virtue looking at that person only, because human nature has several sets of men, not only one. So, we cannot make rules based on those virtues but we can make a distinction between the good and the bad ones.

Secondly, imprudence stands for the violation of those virtues. Emerson says that ,,every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society’’. Why did he said that? Well, I guess he was trying to say that if a person speaks to you truly and you respond with a lie, when the truth comes out that trust is broken and is often very hard for you to rebuild it.

As a conclusion, I think that this quote has an optimistically view about people in general, that can also be valid nowadays. In theory it sounds very good, but is very hard to apply it, because people tend to be cautious and rarely trust somebody completely because in our days every single person is more interested in their own good than that of another person.

Ai incredere in oameni si ei vor fi sinceri cu tine; trateaza-i cu maretie si se vor arata mareti

In opinia mea, ceea ce Ralph W. Emerson incearca sa spuna prin acest citat reprezinta dualitatea dintre prudenta si imprudenta.

In primul rand, prudenta sustine principalul tel al culturii, si anume perfectiunea omului. Dar pentru a obtine acest lucru, nu trebuie sa scriem legile virtutii nimanui raportandu-ne doar la acea persoana, pentru ca natura umana dispune de mai multe tipuri umane, nu doar una. Asadar, u putem face reguli bazate pe acele virtuti, dar putem face o distinctive intre cele bune si cele rele.

In al doilea rand, imprudenta sustine incalcarea acestor virtuti. Emerson spune ca ,, fiecare incalcare a adevarului nu este numai un fel de sinucidere a mincinosului, ci ca o rana a societatii umane insasi”. De ce spune asta? Ei bine, presupun ca ceea ce incearca sa spuna e ca daca o persoana iti vorbeste sincer sit u raspunzi cu o minciuna, cand adevarul iese la iveala acea incredere s-a spart si adeseori este foarte greu sa o reface.

Ca o concluzie, cred ca acest citat abordeaza o viziune optimista asupra oamenilor in general, care poate fi valabila si astazi. In teorie suna foarte bine, dar este foarte greu de aplicat, deoarece oamenii tind sa fie precauti si foarte rar au incredere completa in cineva deoarece in zilele noastre fiecare persoana e mult mai interesata de propiul bine decat cel al altei persoane.