--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: There is nothing we value and hunt and…" description: "\"There is nothing we value and hunt and cultivate and strive to draw to us, but in some hour we turn and rend it.\" — Ralph Waldo Emerson" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c48/ralph-waldo-emerson-6_destruction_there-is-nothing-we-value-and-hunt-and-c_2793320.png" --- # There is nothing we value and hunt and cultivate and… ![“There is nothing we value and hunt and cultivate and strive to draw to us, but in some hour we turn and rend it.” quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c48/ralph-waldo-emerson-6_destruction_there-is-nothing-we-value-and-hunt-and-c_2793320.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c48/ralph-waldo-emerson-6_destruction_there-is-nothing-we-value-and-hunt-and-c_2793320.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c48/ralph-waldo-emerson-6_destruction_there-is-nothing-we-value-and-hunt-and-c_2793320.png) > “There is nothing we value and hunt and cultivate and strive to draw to us, but in some hour we turn and rend it.” [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Human pursuits are often destroyed by our own actions, suggesting that desire and effort can paradoxically lead to loss. **In simple terms:** Our ambitions can self‑destruct. Key Takeaway Mindful pursuit of goals. Themes ambition destruction human nature philosophy Mood reflective cautionary Type philosophical critical When to use this quote - business - environmental policy - personal finance - creative projects Key Concepts existentialism self‑sabotage Questions to Reflect On - What drives self‑destructive patterns? - How to align desire with sustainability? A Different Perspective Destruction may be unintended. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Destruction](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/destruction/) [Values](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/values/) ## Related quotes > [That's what I've been trying to strive for - to draw a clear picture, to open up a new dimension.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mos-def/that-s-what-i-ve-been-trying-to-strive-for-to-draw-a-clear-picture-to/) [Mos Def](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mos-def/) > [It takes 25 years to learn to draw, one hour to learn to paint.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-auguste-dominique-ingres/it-takes-25-years-to-learn-to-draw-one-hour-to-learn-to-paint/) [Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-auguste-dominique-ingres/) > [Man moves in all modes, by legs of horses, by wings of winds, by steam, by gas of balloon, by electricity, and stands on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/man-moves-in-all-modes-by-legs-of-horses-by-wings-of-winds-by-steam/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [The Roman rule was, to teach a boy nothing that he could not learn standing. 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Do not, then, read the reviews.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/no-man-can-be-criticised-but-by-a-greater-than-he-do-not-then-read/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [Coal lay in ledges under the ground since the Flood, until a laborer with pick and windlass brings it to the surface. We may…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/coal-lay-in-ledges-under-the-ground-since-the-flood-until-a-laborer/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [I am; therefore, I had nothing better to do than to think.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/i-am-therefore-i-had-nothing-better-to-do-than-to-think/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends, but they are imprisoned by an enchanter in these paper and leathern…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/in-a-library-we-are-surrounded-by-many-hundreds-of-dear-friends-but/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [The compensations of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also, after long intervals of time. A fever, a mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/the-compensations-of-calamity-are-made-apparent-to-the-understanding/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) [Explore all 4,802 Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) ## More Destruction quotes > [For not only every democracy, but certainly every republic, bears within itself the seeds of its own destruction.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/for-not-only-every-democracy-but-certainly-every-republic-bears/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [There are no white lies, there is only the blackest of destruction, and a white lie is the blackest of all.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/there-are-no-white-lies-there-is-only-the-blackest-of-destruction-and/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [It goes to show you how we in the press so often miss the big stories that are right under our noses. There is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roger-ebert/it-goes-to-show-you-how-we-in-the-press-so-often-miss-the-big-stories/) [Roger Ebert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roger-ebert/) > [A time will come when the science of destruction shall bend before the arts of peace; when the genius which multiplies our powers, which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francois-arago/a-time-will-come-when-the-science-of-destruction-shall-bend-before/) [Francois Arago](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francois-arago/) > [Perhaps the greatest and least visible form of impoverishment caused by the Corporate State is the destruction of community.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-a-reich/perhaps-the-greatest-and-least-visible-form-of-impoverishment-caused/) [Charles A. Reich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-a-reich/) > [Somewhere somebody must have some sense. Men must see that force begets force, hate begets hate, toughness begets toughness. And it is all a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martin-luther-king-jr/somewhere-somebody-must-have-some-sense-men-must-see-that-force/) [Martin Luther King, Jr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martin-luther-king-jr/) > [Death is but an aspect of life, and the destruction of one material form is but a prelude to building up of another.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/death-is-but-an-aspect-of-life-and-the-destruction-of-one-material/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Hundreds of millions of human beings on our planet increasingly suffer from unemployment, poverty, hunger, and the destruction of their families.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hans-kung/hundreds-of-millions-of-human-beings-on-our-planet-increasingly/) [Hans Kung](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hans-kung/) > [Away with you, water, destruction of wine!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catullus/away-with-you-water-destruction-of-wine/) [Catullus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catullus/) > [Some voluntary castaways there will always be, whom no fostering kindness and no parental care can preserve from self-destruction; but if any are lost…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-southey/some-voluntary-castaways-there-will-always-be-whom-no-fostering/) [Robert Southey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-southey/) > [“You are a lawmaker in your own right.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sunday-adelaja/you-are-a-lawmaker-in-your-own-right/) [Sunday Adelaja](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sunday-adelaja/) > [ No visiting angel, or explorer from another planet, could have guessed that this bland orb \[Earth\] teemed with vermin, with world-mastering, self-torturing, incipiently angelic… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/olaf-stapledon/no-visiting-angel-or-explorer-from-another-planet-could-have-guessed/) [Olaf Stapledon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/olaf-stapledon/) > [As far as I know, the question of whether and how it could be strategically or morally justified was never the subject of open…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/as-far-as-i-know-the-question-of-whether-and-how-it-could-be/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Is there some lesson on how to be friends? 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Power has become their faith instead of faith being their power.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/atiq-rahimi/we-re-on-the-eve-of-destruction-men-have-lost-all-sense-of-honor/) Atiq Rahimi [Browse all 3,161 Destruction quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/destruction/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "There is nothing we value and hunt and cultivate and strive to draw to us, but in some hour we turn and rend it.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ralph Waldo Emerson" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/there-is-nothing-we-value-and-hunt-and-cultivate-and-strive-to-draw/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Destruction" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/there-is-nothing-we-value-and-hunt-and-cultivate-and-strive-to-draw/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c48/ralph-waldo-emerson-6_destruction_there-is-nothing-we-value-and-hunt-and-c_2793320.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c48/ralph-waldo-emerson-6_destruction_there-is-nothing-we-value-and-hunt-and-c_2793320.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c48/ralph-waldo-emerson-6_destruction_there-is-nothing-we-value-and-hunt-and-c_2793320.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“There is nothing we value and hunt and cultivate and strive to draw to us, but in some hour we turn and rend…” — Ralph Waldo Emerson", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Ralph Waldo Emerson", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "There is nothing we value and...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/there-is-nothing-we-value-and-hunt-and-cultivate-and-strive-to-draw/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/there-is-nothing-we-value-and-hunt-and-cultivate-and-strive-to-draw/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```