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The highest proof of civility is that the whole public action of the State is directed on securing the greatest good of the greatest number.

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
Action
Directed
States
Proof
Whole
Number
Good
Highest
Numbers
Greatest
Public
Securing
State
Civility

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A part of fate is the freedom of man. Forever wells up the impulse of choosing and acting in his soul.
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For, the advantages which fashion values, are plants which thrive in very confined localities, in a few streets, namely. Out of this precinct, they go for nothing are of no use in the farm, in the forest, in the market, in war, in the nuptial society, in the literary or scientific circle, at sea, in friendship, in the heaven of thought or virtue.
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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.
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My son, a perfect little boy of five years and three months, had ended his earthly life. You can never sympathize with me you can never know how much of me such a young child can take away. A few weeks ago I accounted myself a very rich man, and now the poorest of all.
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He that can heroically endure adversity will bear prosperity with equal greatest of the soul for the mind that cannot be dejected by the former is not likely to be transported without the latter.
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For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a poem, - a thought so passionate and alive that like the spirit of a plant or an animal it has an architecture of its own, and adorns nature with a new thing.
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There is one mind common to all individual men
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In the uttermost meaning of the words, thought is devout, and devotion is thought. Deep calls unto deep.
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We take care of our health we lay up money we make our roof tight, and our clothing sufficient but who provides wisely that he shall not be wanting in the best property of all, -friends?
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Let ideas establish their legitimate sway again in society, let life be fair and poetic, and the scholars will gladly be lovers, citizens, and philanthropists.
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Nature, through all her kingdoms, insures herself.
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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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There is no strong performance without a little fanaticism in the performer.
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He in whom the love of truth predominates . . . submits to the inconvenience of suspense and imperfect opinion but he is a candidate for truth . . . and respects the highest law of his being.
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But a public oration is an escapade, a non-committal, an apology, a gag, and not a communication, not a speech, not a man.
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The power of a man increases steadily by continuing in one direction.
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We ask for long life, but 'tis deep life, or noble moments that signify. Let the measure of time be spiritual, not mechanical.
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Men who know the same things are not long the best company for each other.
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Dreams and beasts are two keys by which we find out the keys of our own nature.
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A human being should beware how he laughs, for then he shows all his faults.
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