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When we have broken our god of tradition, and ceased from our god of rhetoric, then may God fire the heart with His presence.

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
Broken
Fire
Religion
May
Ceased
Heart
Rhetoric
Presence
God
Tradition

More quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The South-wind brings Life, sunshine and desire, And on every mount and meadow Breathes aromatic fire But over the dead he has no power, The lost, the lost, he cannot restore And, looking over the hills, I mourn The darling who shall not return.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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We are reformers in the spring and summer, but in autumn we stand by the old. Reformers in the morning, and conservers at night.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Throw a stone into the stream and the ripples that propagate themselves are the beautiful type of all influence.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The piety of the Hebrew prophets purges their grossness. The circumcision is an example of the power of poetry to raise the low and offensive.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Conversation is a game of circles.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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It is easy to see that a greater self-reliance must work a revolution in all the offices and relations of men in their religion in their education in their pursuits their modes of living their association in their property in their speculative views.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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We, as we read, must become Greeks, Romans, Turks, priest and king, martyr and executioner must fasten these images to some reality in our secret experience, or we shall learn nothing rightly.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The history of reform is always identical it is the comparison of the idea with the fact. Our modes of living are not agreeable to our imagination. We suspect they are unworthy. We arraign our daily employments.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The three practical rules, then, which I have to offer, are, --/ Never read a book that is not a year old./ Never read any but the famed books./ Never read any but what you like.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Great is the art, Great be the manners, of the bard. He shall not his brain encumber With the coil of rhythm and number But, leaving rule and pale forethought, He shall aye climb For his rhyme. Pass in, pass in, the angels say
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Books are for nothing but to inspire
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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For, the advantages which fashion values, are plants which thrive in very confined localities, in a few streets, namely. Out of this precinct, they go for nothing are of no use in the farm, in the forest, in the market, in war, in the nuptial society, in the literary or scientific circle, at sea, in friendship, in the heaven of thought or virtue.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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There can be no excess to love, none to knowledge, none to beauty.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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In a world of infinite choice people are struggling to figure out what to do.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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What you persist in doing gets easier. The task hasn't changed, but your ability to do it has increased.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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It is better to suffer injustice than to do it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Nature never hurries: atom by atom, little by little, she achieves her work. The lesson one learns from yachting or planting is the manners of Nature patience with the delays of wind and sun, delays of the seasons, bad weather, excess or lack of water.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Congratulate yourself if you have done something strange, extravagant and broken the monotony.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Books are the best of things, well used abused, among the worst...They are for nothing but to inspire.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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When a man becomes cultivated, he develops a new respect for who he is. This causes him to be ashamed of his past identification of himself and others according to things, i.e. property.
Ralph Waldo Emerson