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We can only obey our own polarity.

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
Polarity
Obey
Fate

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Earth laughs in flowers to see her boastful boys Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet Clear of the grave.
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My angel,-his name is Freedom,- Choose him to be your king He shall cut pathways east and west, And fend you with his wing.
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Whatever events in progress shall disgust men with cities, and infuse into them the passion for country life, and country pleasures, will render a service to the whole face of this continent, and will further the most poetic of all the occupations of real life, the bringing out by art the native but hidden graces of the landscape.
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No facts to me are sacred none are profane.
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I find nothing in fables more astonishing than my experience in every hour. One moment of a man's life is a fact so stupendous as to take the luster out of fiction.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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How can he [today's writer] be honored, when he does not honor himself when he loses himself in the crowd when he is no longer the lawgiver, but the sycophant, ducking to the giddy opinion of a reckless public.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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There is no good theory of disease which does not at once suggest a cure.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Perhaps it is the lowest of the qualities of an orator, but it is, on so many occasions, of chief importance,--a certain robust and radiant physical health or--shall I say?--great volumes of animal heat.
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The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child.
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The worst of charity is that the lives you are asked to preserve are not worth preserving.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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I DO not count the hours I spend In wandering by the sea The forest is my loyal friend, Like God it useth me.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The power of love, as the basis of a State, has never been tried.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Man Thinking must not be subdued by his instruments. Books are for the scholar's idle times. When he can read God directly, the hour is too precious to be wasted in other men's transcripts of their readings.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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A man in debt is so far a slave.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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It happens to us once or twice in a lifetime to be drunk with some book which probably has some extraordinary relative power to intoxicate us and none other and having exhausted that cup of enchantment we go groping in libraries all our years afterwards in the hope of being in Paradise again.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Pines a thousand years old. Every year they must go farther for them: they recede, like beavers and Indians, before the white man.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Conformity is the ape of harmony.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Is there a difference? Yes. We are in harmony with nature, but never at peace.
Ralph Waldo Emerson