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Imitation cannot go above its model.

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
Models
Cannot
Imitation
Model

More quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Truly speaking, it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive from another soul. What he announces, I must find true in me, or reject and on his word, or as his second, be he who he may, I can accept nothing.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Life is not intellectual or critical, but sturdy. Its chief good is for well-mixed people who can enjoy what they find, without question.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The hero is not fed on sweets, Daily his own heart he eats Chambers of the great are jails, And head-winds right for royal sails.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Foolish, whenever you take the meanness and formality of that thing you do, instead of converting it into the obedient spiracle ofyour character and aims.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Where is he who seeing a thousand men useless and unhappy, and making the whole region forlorn by their inaction, and conscious himself of possessing the faculty they want, does not hear his call to go and be their king?
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The soul answers never by words, but by the thing itself that is inquired after.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The first in time and the first in importance of the influences upon the mind is that of nature. Every day, the sun and after sunset, night and her stars. Ever the winds blow ever the grass grows.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Every man's task [his 'great dream' and impassioned life-goal] is his life preserver.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Sculpture and painting have the effect of teaching us manners and abolishing hurry.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The best picture makes us say, I am a painter also.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Say, what other metre is it Than the meeting of the eyes? Nature poureth into nature Through the channels of that feature Riding on the ray of sight, Fleeter far than whirlwinds go, Or for service, or delight, Hearts to hearts their meaning show.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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To aim to convert a man by miracles is a profanation of the soul. A true conversion, a true Christ, is now, as always, to be madeby the reception of beautiful sentiments.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Every day, a little sadder, a little madder. Will someone get me a ladder?
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Talent may frolic and juggle genius realizes and adds.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Friendship requires more time than poor busy men can usually command.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The whole value of the dime is in knowing what to do with it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The essence of friendship is entireness, a total magnanimity and trust.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Every man's condition is a solution in hieroglyph to those inquiries he would put. He acts it as life before he apprehends it as truth.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Nothing shall warp me from the belief that every man is a lover of truth. There is no pure lie, no pure malignity in nature. The entertainment of the proposition of depravity is the last profligacy and profanation. There is no skepticism, no atheism but that. Could it be received into common belief, suicide would unpeople the planet.
Ralph Waldo Emerson