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

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Of lower states, of acts of routine and sense, we can tell somewhat but the masterpieces of God, the total growths and universalmovements of the soul, he hideth they are incalculable. I can know that truth is divine and helpful but how it shall help me I can have no guess, for so to be is the sole inlet of so to know.
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Romeo, of dead, should be cut up into little stars to make the heavens fine. Life, with this pair, has no other aim, asks no more,than Juliet,--than Romeo.
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A philosopher must be more than a philosopher.
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The writer is an explorer. Every step is an advance into a new land.
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Every really able man, in whatever direction he works - a man of large affairs, an inventor, a statesman, an orator, a poet, a painter - if you talk sincerely with him, considers his work, however much admired, as far short of what it should be. What is this Better, this flying Ideal, but the perpetual promise of his Creator?
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For he that feeds men serveth few He serves all who dares be true.
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Anger is that powerful internal force that blows out the light of reason.
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If I should go out of church whenever I hear a false statement I could never stay there five minutes. But why come out? The streetis as false as the church, and when I get to my house, or to my manners, or to my speech, I have not got away from the lie.
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We resent all criticism which denies us anything that lies in our line of advance.
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The restraining grace of common sense is the mark of all valid minds.
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Though your views are in straight antagonism to theirs, assume an identity of sentiment, assume that you are saying precisely thatwhich all think, and in the flow of wit and love roll out your paradoxes in solid column, with not the infirmity of a doubt.
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It is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world owes the world more than the world can pay.
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There is nothing settled in manners, but the laws of behavior yield to the energy of the individual.
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We are thus assisted by natural objects in the expression of particular meanings. But how great a language to convey such pepper-corn informations!
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Let there be worse cotton and better men.
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The South-wind brings Life, sunshine and desire, And on every mount and meadow Breathes aromatic fire But over the dead he has no power, The lost, the lost, he cannot restore And, looking over the hills, I mourn The darling who shall not return.
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For you, o broker, there is no other principle but arithmetic. For me, commerce is of trivial import love, faith, truth of character, the aspiration of man, these are sacred nor can I detach one duty, like you, from all other duties, and concentrate my forces mechanically on the payment of moneys.
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Throw a stone into the stream and the ripples that propagate themselves are the beautiful type of all influence.
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Who hears me, who understands me, becomes mine, a possession for all time.
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Little minds have little worries, big minds have no time for worries.
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