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Tis the good reader that makes the good book a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Ralph Waldo Emerson
Age: 78 †
Born: 1803
Born: May 25
Died: 1882
Died: April 27
Biographer
Diarist
Essayist
Philosopher
Poet
Writer
Boston
Massachusetts
R. W. Emerson
Waldo Emerson
Makes
Hidden
Else
Ears
Cannot
Meant
Seems
Reader
Book
Seem
Confidences
Every
Head
Amiss
Good
Reading
Passages
Read
Finds

More quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends, but they are imprisoned by an enchanter in these paper and leathern boxes.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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I count him a great man who inhabits a higher sphere of thought, into which other men rise with labor and difficulty he has but to open his eyes to see things in a true light, and in large relations whilst they must make painful corrections, and keep a vigilant eye on many sources of error.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Good nature is stronger than tomahawks.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Every individual strives to grow and exclude, to the extremities of the universe, and to impose the law of its being on every other creature.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Conservatism makes no poetry, breathes no prayer, has no invention it is all memory. Reform has no gratitude, no prudence, no husbandry.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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I honor health as the first muse, and sleep as the condition of health. Sleep benefits mainly by the sound health it produces incidentally also by dreams, into whose farrago a divine lesson is sometimes slipped.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The solid, solid universe Is pervious to Love With bandaged eyes he never errs, Around, below, above. His blinding light He flingeth white On God's and Satan's brood, And reconciles By mystic wiles The evil and the good.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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How can he [today's writer] be honored, when he does not honor himself when he loses himself in the crowd when he is no longer the lawgiver, but the sycophant, ducking to the giddy opinion of a reckless public.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Painting was called silent poetry and poetry speaking painting.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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A cheerful intelligent face is the end of culture, and success enough. For it indicates the purpose of Nature and wisdom attained.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Open the doors of opportunity to talent and virtue and they will do themselves justice, and property will not be in bad hands.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man has taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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If in the least particular, one could derange the order of nature, who would accept the gift of life?
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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I suppose you could never explain to the most ingenous molusk that such a creature as a whale existed.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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We are as much informed of a writer's genius by what he selects as by what he originates.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Do what you're afraid to do.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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You will think me very pedantic, gentlemen, but holiday though it may be, I have not the smallest interest in any holiday, except as it celebrates real and not pretended joys.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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If we walk in the woods, we must feed mosquitoes.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Our age is very cheap and intelligible. Unroof any house, and you shall find it. The well-being consists in having a sufficiency of coffee and toast, with a daily newspaper a well glazed parlor, with marbles, mirrors and centre-table and the excitement of a few parties and a few rides in a year.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Beauty brings its own fancy price, for all that a man hath will he give for his love.
Ralph Waldo Emerson