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Poets should be law-givers that is, the boldest lyric inspiration should not chide and insult, but should announce and lead the civil code, and the day's work.

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
Poet
Announce
Inspiration
Lyric
Law
Giver
Work
Poets
Insult
Civil
Chide
Code
Boldest
Lead
Givers

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The task ahead of us is never as great as the power behind us.
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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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Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.
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Nature hates calculators.
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We must set up a strong present tense against all rumors of wrath, past and to come.
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As Arkwright and Whitney were the demi-gods of cotton, so prolific Time will yet bring an inventor to every plant. There is not a property in nature but a mind is born to seek and find it.
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When the eyes say one thing, and the tongue another, a practiced man relies on the language of the first.
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Happy is the house that shelters a friend.
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Men who know the same things are not long the best company for each other.
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The youth, intoxicated with his admiration of a hero, fails to see, that it is only a projection of his own soul, which he admires.
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Manners make the fortune of the ambitious youth.
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Desire is possibility seeking expression.
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The world is a divine dream, from which we may presently awake to the glories and certainties of day.
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I am a part and parcel of God.
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Congratulate yourself if you have done something strange, extravagant and broken the monotony.
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The hero is not fed on sweets, Daily his own heart he eats Chambers of the great are jails, And head-winds right for royal sails.
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Sentimentalists ... adopt whatever merit is in good repute, and almost make it hateful with their praise. The warmer their expressions, the colder we feel.... Cure the drunkard, heal the insane, mollify the homicide, civilize the Pawnee, but what lessons can be devised for the debauchee of sentiment?
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If you would serve your brother it is fit for you to serve him, do not take back your words when you find that prudent people do not commend you. Be true to your own act, and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant and broken the monotony of a decorous age.
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Surely nobody would be a charlatan, who could afford to be sincere.
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I look on trade and every mechanical craft as education also. But let me discriminate what is precious herein. There is in each ofthese works an act of invention, an intellectual step, or short series of steps taken that act or step is the spiritual act all the rest is mere repetition of the same a thousand times.
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