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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.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
In the vaunted works of Art The master stroke is Nature's part.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
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.'
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
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.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
In the highest civilization, the book is still the highest delight. He who has once known its satisfactions is provided with a resource against calamity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
When nature removes a great man, people explore the horizon for a successor; but none comes, and none will. His class is extinguished with him. In some other and quite different field the next man will appear.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him. 6.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, Tell them, dear, that, if eyes were made for seeing, Then beauty is its own excuse for Being.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
Every genuine work of art has as much reason for being as the earth and the sun.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
Announced by all the trumpets of the sky Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields, Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air Hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven, And veils the farm-house at the garden's end.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
There are two laws discrete Not reconciled, Law for man, and law for thing.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
But all sorts of things and weather Must be taken in together To make up a year, And a sphere.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Music is the poor man's Parnassus.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
Deep in the man sits fast his fate To mould his fortunes, mean or great.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
Classics which at home are drowsily read have a strange charm in a country inn, or in the transom of a merchant brig.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
Nature paints the best part of a picture, carves the best parts of the statue, builds the best part of the house, and speaks the best part of the oration.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The horseman serves the horse, The neatherd serves the neat, The merchant serves the purse, The eater serves his meat; 'T is the day of the chattel, Web to weave, and corn to grind; Things are in the saddle, And ride mankind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
Self-reliance, the height and perfection of man, is reliance on God.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
Ralph Waldo Emerson -
The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men round to his opinion twenty years later.
Ralph Waldo Emerson