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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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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
Theory
Best
Make
Performance
Performances
Prove

More quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always sings.
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In sculpture did ever anybody call the Apollo a fancy piece? Or say of the Laocoon how it might be made different? A masterpiece of art has in the mind a fixed place in the chain of being, as much as a plant or a crystal.
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Every great man is a unique. The Scipionism of Scipio is precisely that part he could not borrow.
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Mankind have such a deep stake in inward illumination, that there is much to be said by the hermit or monk in defence of his life of thought and prayer.
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God will not have his work made manifest by cowards
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Women see better than men. Men see lazily, if they do not expect to act. Women see quite without any wish to act.
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Stand guard at the portal of your mind.
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We do not yet trust the unknown power of thoughts.
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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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The man in the street does not know a star in the sky.
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What is the end of human life? It is not, believe me, the chief end of man that he should make a fortune and beget children whose end is likewise to make a fortune, but it is, in few words, that he should explore himself.
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Nature is a language and every new fact one learns is a new word but it is not a language taken to pieces and dead in the dictionary, but the language put together into a most significant and universal sense. I wish to learn this language - not that I may know a new grammar, but that I may read the great book which is written in that tongue.
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It is the eye which makes the horizon.
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Meet your failure nobly, and it will not differ from success.
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To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores their tone.
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I believe that our own experience instructs us that the secret of Education lies in respecting the pupil.
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Mankind divides itself into two classes,--benefactors and malefactors. The second class is vast the first a handful.
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O friend, never strike sail to a fear! Come into port greatly, or sail with God the seas.
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Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting.
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Whatever we think and say is wonderfully better for our spirits and trust in another mouth.
Ralph Waldo Emerson