A small upright bundle of unlit red-tipped matches is tied with twine on warm brown ground.

Original artwork, not a still

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The majority of men are bundles of beginnings.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

Emerson observes that most people amount to little more than a collection of unfinished starts, suggesting that ambition and initiative are common while genuine follow-through and completion remain comparatively rare among the majority of men.

Context reviewed

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