"He is great who confers the most benefits."
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Quote collection
Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes (page 161 of 211)
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"People are timid and apologetic; they are no longer upright; they dare not say "I think," "I am," but quote some saint or sage. They are ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day."
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"The attraction and superiority of California are in its days. It has better days & more of them, than any other country."
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"Thanks to the morning light, Thanks to the foaming sea, To the uplands of New Hampshire, To the green-haired forest free."
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"When a man meets his make, society begins."
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"A just thinker will allow full swing to his scepticism. I dip my pen in the blackest ink, because I am not afraid of falling into my inkpot.... We are of different opinions at different hours, but we always may be said to be at heart on the side of truth."
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"Is all literature eavesdropping, and all art Chinese imitation? our life a custom, and our body borrowed, like a beggar’s dinner, from a hundred charities?"
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"Solitary converse with nature; for thence are ejaculated sweet and dreadful words never uttered in libraries. Ah! the spring days, the summer dawns, and October woods!"
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"Ah Fate, cannot a man Be wise without a beard? East, West, from Beer to Dan, Say, was it never heard That wisdom might in youth be gotten, Or wit be ripe before 't was rotten?"
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"With most men, scarce a link of memory holds yesterday and to-day together."
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"Old age brings along with its uglinesses the comfort that you will soon be out of it, - which ought to be a substantial relief to such discontented pendulums as we are."
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"We seek our friend not sacredly, but with an adulterate passion which would appropriate him to ourselves."
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"A man of good sense but of little faith, whose compassion seemed to lead him to church as often as he went there, said to me; 'that he liked to have concerts, and fairs, and churches, and other public amusements go on."
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"The regular course of studies, the years of academical and professional education, have not yielded me better facts than some idle books under the bench at the Latin School."
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"The craft of the merchant is this bringing a thing where it abounds to where it is costly."
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"I DO not count the hours I spend In wandering by the sea; The forest is my loyal friend, Like God it useth me."
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"Five minutes of today are worth as much to me, as five minutes in the next millennium. Let us be poised, and wise, and our own, today."
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"Though thou loved her as thyself, As a self of purer clay, Tho' her parting dims the day, Stealing grace from all alive, Heartily know, When half-gods go, The gods arrive."
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"A man cannot free himself by any self-denying ordinances, neither by water nor potatoes, nor by violent possibilities, by refusing to swear, refusing to pay taxes, by going to jail, or by taking another man's crops or squatting on his land. By none of these ways can he free himself; no, nor by paying his debts with money; only by obedience to his own genius."
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"The results of life are uncalculated and uncalculable. The years teach much which the days never know. The persons who compose our company, converse, and come and go, and design and execute many things, and somewhat comes of it all, but an unlooked for result. The individual is always mistaken. He designed many things, and drew in other persons as coadjutors, quarrelled with some or all, blundered much, and something is done; all are a little advanced, but the individual is always mistaken. It turns out somewhat new, and very unlike what he promised himself."
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