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We are the prisoners of ideas.

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
Prisoners
Prisoner
Conflict
Ideas

More quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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There is a time when a man distinguishes the idea of felicity from the idea of wealth it is the beginning of wisdom.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts.
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A man's wife has more power over him than the state has.
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All science has one aim, namely, to find a theory of nature.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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In science we have to consider two things: power and circumstance.
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In America and Europe, the nomadism is of trade and curiosity.
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Ah Fate, cannot a man Be wise without a beard? East, West, from Beer to Dan, Say, was it never heard That wisdom might in youth be gotten, Or wit be ripe before 't was rotten?
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances: it was somebody's name, or he happened to be there at right time, or it was so then, and another day it would have been otherwise. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
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Neither is life long enough for friendship. That is a serious and majestic affair.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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In these divine pleasures permitted to me of walks in the June night under moon and stars, I can put my life as a fact before me and stand aloof from its honor and shame.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Thoughts come into our minds by avenues which we never left open, and thoughts go out of our minds through avenues which we never voluntarily opened.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The German intellect wants the French sprightliness, the fine practical understanding of the English, and the American adventure but it has a certain probity, which never rests in a superficial performance, but asks steadily, To what end? A German public asks for a controlling sincerity.
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But harder still it has proved to resist and rule the dragon Money, with his paper wings. Chancellors and Boards of Trade, Pitt, Peel, and Bobinson, and their parliaments, and their whole generation, adopted false principles, and went to their graves in the belief that they were enriching the country which they were impoverishing.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Daughter of heaven and earth, coy Spring, With sudden passion languishing, Teaching barren moors to smile, Painting pictures mile on mile, Holds a cup of cowslip wreaths Whence a smokeless incense breathes.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Our prayers are prophets.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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When a man does not write his poetry, it escapes by other vents through him.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Desire is possibility seeking expression.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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A walk in the woods is only an exalted dream.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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In spite of warnings, change rarely occurs until the status quo becomes more painful than change. People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.
Ralph Waldo Emerson