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
mans perfection. But in order to obtain this we must not try to write the
laws of anyones 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.