Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
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For nature beats in perfect tune, And rounds with rhyme her every rune, Whether she work in land or sea, Or hide underground her alchemy. Thou canst not wave thy staff in air, Or dip thy paddle in the lake, But it carves the bow of beauty there, And the ripples in rhymes the oar forsake.
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I know that the world I converse with in the city and in the farms, is not the world I think. I observe that difference, and shall observe it. One day I shall know the value and law of this discrepance. But I have not found that much was gained by manipular attempts to realize the world of thought.
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Good-bye, proud world! I’m going home: Thou art not my friend, and I’m not thine.
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In how many churches, by how many prophets, tell me, is man made sensible that he is an infinite Soul; that the earth and heavens are passing into his mind; that he is drinking forever the soul of God?
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A masterpiece of art has in the mind a fixed place in the chain of being, as much as a plant or a crystal.
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The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.
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The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.
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Ever from one who comes to-morrow Men wait their good and truth to borrow.
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Go where he will, the wise man is at home, His hearth the earth, his hall the azure dome.
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Whoever fights, whoever falls, Justice conquers evermore.
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If I could put my hand on the north star, would it be as beautiful? The sea is lovely, but when we bathe in it, the beauty forsakes all the near water. For the imagination and senses cannot be gratified at the same time.
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I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.
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In this distribution of functions, the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right state, he is, Man Thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men's thinking.
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The measure of action is the sentiment from which it proceeds. The greatest action may easily be one of the most private circumstance.
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The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
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He needs no library, for he has not done thinking; no church, for he is himself a prophet; no statute book, for he hath the Lawgiver; no money, for he is value itself; no road, for he is at home where he is.
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Give all to love; Obey thy heart; Friends, kindred, days, Estate, good fame, Plans, credit, and the muse; Nothing refuse.
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And with Cæsar to take in his hand the army, the empire, and Cleopatra, and say, 'All these will I relinquish if you will show me the fountain of the Nile.'
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Yet a man may love a paradox, without losing either his wit or his honesty.
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The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops - no, but the kind of man the country turns out.
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To-day unbind the captive, So only are ye unbound; Lift up a people from the dust, Trump of their rescue, sound!
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Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.
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Nothing can be preserved that is not good.
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Almost all people descend to meet.