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But genius looks forward: the eyes of men are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead: man hopes: genius creates.

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
Eye
Looks
Forehead
Men
Foreheads
Hopes
Creates
Forward
Genius
Eyes

More quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The way to write is to throw your body at the mark when your arrows are spent.
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Nature never rhymes her children, nor makes two men alike. When we see a great man, we fancy a resemblance to some historical person, and predict the sequel of his character and fortune, a result which he is sure to disappoint. None will ever solve the problem of his character according to our prejudice, but only in his high unprecedented way.
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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Good criticism is very rare and always precious.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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We do what we can, and then make a theory to prove our performance the best.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The height of the pinnacle is determined by the breadth of the base.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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To believe in luck ... is skepticism.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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We seldom see anybody who is not uneasy or afraid to live.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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My garden is a forest ledge Which older forest s bound The banks slope down to the blue lake-edge, Then plunge to depths profound!
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Only poetry inspires poetry.
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I will no longer confer, differ, refer, defer, prefer, or suffer. I renounce the whole tribe of fero. I embrace absolute life.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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God had infinite time to give us.... He cut it up into a near succession of new mornings, and, with each, therefore, a new idea, new inventions, and new applications.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Every great man is a unique. The Scipionism of Scipio is precisely that part he could not borrow.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The world leaves no track in space, and the greatest action of man no mark in the vast idea.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Science was false by being unpoetical. It assumed to explain a reptile or a mollusk, and isolated it-which is hunting for life in graveyards. Reptile or mollusk or man or angel only exists in system, in relation.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Things bring their own philosophy with them, that is, prudence.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Politics is a deleterious profession, like some poisonous handicrafts.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must bleed for me. Therefore the poet brings his poem the shepherd, his lamb the farmer, corn the miner, a stone the painter, his picture the girl, a handkerchief of her own sewing.
Ralph Waldo Emerson