Quote

I find nothing in fables more astonishing than my experience in every hour. One moment of a man's life is a fact so stupendous as to take the luster out of fiction.

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
Every
Fact
Men
Moment
Stupendous
Time
Experience
Luster
Life
Facts
Fables
Moments
Astonishing
Find
Hour
Nothing
Fiction
Take
Hours

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The world globes itself in a drop of dew.
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Society does not love its unmaskers.
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The whole value of history, of biography, is to increase my self-trust, by demonstrating what man can be and do.
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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.
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Let him be great, and love shall follow him. Nothing is more deeply punished than the neglect of the affinities by which alone society should be formed, and the insane levity of choosing associates by others eyes.
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Test of the poet is knowledge of love, For Eros is older than Saturn or Jove Never was poet, of late or of yore, Who was not tremulous with love-lore.
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Governments have their origin in the moral identity of men.
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It is a sign of our times, conspicuous to the coarsest observer, that many intelligent and religious persons withdraw themselves from the common labors and competitions of the market and the caucus, and betake themselves to a certain solitary and critical way of living, from which no solid fruit has yet appeared to justify their separation.
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One must be an inventor to read well.
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Nor knowest thou what argument Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent. All are needed by each one Nothing is fair or good alone.
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The greatest genius is the most indebted person.
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We talk of choosing our friends, but friends are self-elected.
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What king has he not taught state, as Talma taught Napoleon? What maiden has not found him finer than her delicacy? What lover has he not outloved? What sage has he not outseen? What gentleman has he not instructed in the rudeness of his behavior?
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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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Proverbs are the literature of reason, or the statements of absolute truth, without qualification. Like the sacred books of each nation, they are the sanctuary of its intuitions.
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A forte always makes a foible.
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A friend is Janus-faced: he looks to the past and the future. He is the child of all my foregoing hours, the prophet of those to come, and the harbinger of a greater friend.
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Power resides in the moment of transition from a past to a new state.
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The method of nature: who could ever analyze it?
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Away with this hurrah of masses, and let us have the considerate vote of single men.
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