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Government has come to be a trade, and is managed solely on commercial principles. A man plunges into politics to make his fortune, and only cares that the world shall last his days.

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
Make
Shall
Solely
Men
Days
Managed
World
Politics
Commercial
Lasts
Cares
Last
Fortune
Care
Trade
Government
Principles
Plunges
Come
Liberty
Plunge

More quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Thought is the seed of action but action is as much its second form as thought is its first. It rises in thought, to the end that it may be uttered and acted. Always in proportion to the depth of its sense does it knock importunately at the gates of the soul, to be spoken, to be done.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Sport is the bloom and glow of a perfect health. The great will not condescend to take anything seriously all must be as gay as the song of a canary, though it were the building of cities, or the eradication of old and foolish churches and nations, which have cumbered the earth long thousands of years.
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it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower.
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Art is not to be found by touring to Egypt, China, or Peru if you cannot find it at your own door, you will never find it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Yet some natures are too good to be spoiled by praise, and wherever the vein of thought reaches down into the profound, there is no danger from vanity. Solemn friends will warn them of the danger of the head's being turned by the flourish of trumpets, but they can afford to smile.
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What is the hardest task in the world? To think.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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To a dull mind all of nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.
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Good writing is a kind of skating which carries off the performer where he would not go, and is only right admirable when to all its beauty and speed a subserviency to the will, like that of walking, is added.
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To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars.
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The aspect of nature is devout. Like the figure of Jesus, she stands with bended head, and hands folded upon the breast. The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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All men are poets at heart. They serve nature for bread, but her loveliness overcomes them sometimes.
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I think no virtue goes with size.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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A man is a hero, not because he is braver than anyone else, but because he is brave for 10 minutes longer.
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The merit claimed for the Anglican Church is that, if you let it alone, it will let you alone.
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Whilst all the world is in pursuit of power, culture corrects the theory of success.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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We are made aware that magnitude of material things is relative, and all objects shrink and expand to serve the passion of the poet. Thus, in his sonnets, the lays of birds, the scents and dyes of flowers, he finds to be the shadow of his beloved time, which keeps her from him, is his chest the suspicion she has awakened, is her ornament
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Rings and other jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself.
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An empire is an immense egotism.
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It is easy to live for others, everybody does. I call on you to live for yourself.
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We are the prisoners of ideas. They catch us up for moments into their heaven, and so fully engage us, that we take no thought forthe morrow, gaze like children, without an effort to make them our own.
Ralph Waldo Emerson