Now as to a branch, another cuts it off; but a man by his own act separates himself from his neighbor when he hates him and turns away from him, and he does not know that he has at the same time cut himself off from the whole social system.
In his personal writings, this passage explains how individual actions of hatred lead to self-imposed social isolation.
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But everything else, whether it is in the power of thy will or not, is only lifeless ashes and smoke.
And how small a part of the whole substance; and how small a part of the universal soul; and on what a small clod of the whole earth thou creepest!
But if it is easy to set little value on all these things, turn to that which remains, which is to follow reason and God.
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