Quote

Almost every man we meet requires some civility requires to be humored - he has some fame, some talent, some whim of religion or philanthropy in his head that is not to be questioned, and which spoils all conversation with him. But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me.

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
Friends
Friendship
Whim
Religion
Meet
Civility
Every
Conversation
Ingenuity
Men
Exercise
Spoil
Friend
Philanthropy
Humored
Talent
Sane
Spoils
Head
Requires
Questioned
Almost
Fame
Exercises

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Men do what is called a good action, as some piece of courage or charity, much as they would pay a fine in expiation of daily non-appearance on parade. Their works are done as an apology or extenuation of their living in the world. I do not wish to expiate, but to live. My life is not an apology, but a life.
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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The poet's habit of living should be set on a key so low that the common influences should delight him.
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I am so much a Unitarian as this: that I believe the human mind can admit but one God, and that every effort to pay religious homage to more than one being goes to take away all right ideas.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Wherever there is failure, there is some giddiness, some superstition about luck, some step omitted, which, Nature never pardons.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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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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If you cannot be free be as free as you can.
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In the actual world--the painful kingdom of time and place--dwell care, and canker, and fear. With thought, with the ideal, is immortal hilarity, the rose of joy.
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Men of sense esteem wealth to be the assimilation of nature to themselves, the converting of the sap and juices of the planet to the incarnation and nutriment of their design.
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Live well, learn plenty, laugh often, love much.
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To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars.
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Yourself a newborn bard of the Holy Ghost, cast behind you all conformity, and acquaint men at first hand with Deity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is due to the triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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We read often with as much talent as we write.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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But there are higher secrets of culture, which are not for the apprentices, but for proficients. These are lessons only for the brave. We must know our friends under ugly masks. The calamities are our friends.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Your actions speak so loud, I can't hear what you say.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Expediency of literature, reason of literature, lawfulness of writing down a thought, is questioned much is to say on both sides,and, while the fight waxes hot, thou, dearest scholar, stick to thy foolish task, add a line every hour, and between whiles add a line.
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It is greatest to believe and to hope well of the world, because he who does so, quits the world of experience, and makes the world he lives in.
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The only reward of virtue is virtue.
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People forget that it is the eye which makes the horizon, and the rounding mind's eye which makes this or that man a type or representative of humanity with the name of hero or saint.
Ralph Waldo Emerson