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In the Greek cities, it was reckoned profane, that any person should pretend a property in a work of art, which belonged to all who could behold it.

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
Greek
Property
Cities
Artist
Reckoned
Art
Profane
Persons
Belonged
Person
Behold
Work
Pretend

More quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Cities of mortals woe-begone Fantastic care derides, But in the serious landscape lone Stern benefit abides.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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We begin with friendships, and all our youth is a reconnoitering and recruiting of the holy fraternity they shall combine for thesalvation of men. But so the remoter stars seem a nebula of united light, yet there is no group which a telescope will not resolve and the dearest friends are separated by impassable gulfs.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Hume's doctrine was that the circumstances vary, the amount of happiness does not that the beggar cracking fleas in the sunshine under a hedge, and the duke rolling by in his chariot, the girl equipped for her first ball, and the orator returning triumphant from the debate, had different means, but the same quantity of pleasant excitement.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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We say the cows laid out Boston. Well, there are worse surveyors.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Do not tell me of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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A good indignation makes an excellent speech.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Some will always be above others.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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We swim, day by day, on a river of delusions, and are effectually amused with houses and towns in the air, of which the men aboutus are dupes. But life is a sincerity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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In the hands of the discoverer, medicine becomes a heroic art . . wherever life is dear he is a demigod.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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A poem is made up of thoughts, each of which filled the whole sky of the poet in its turn.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The reverence for the deeds of our ancestors is a treacherous sentiment. Their merit was not to reverence the old, but to honor the present moment and we falsely make them excuses of the very habit which they hated and defied.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Could Shakespeare give a theory of Shakespeare?
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Say, what other metre is it Than the meeting of the eyes? Nature poureth into nature Through the channels of that feature Riding on the ray of sight, Fleeter far than whirlwinds go, Or for service, or delight, Hearts to hearts their meaning show.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone, scarcely even in acts of pure memory, but to bring the past for judgment into the thousand-eyed present, and live ever in a new day.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The wise man in the storm prays God not for safety from danger but for deliverance from fear. It is the storm within which endangers him[,] not the storm without.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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If the gatherer gathers too-much, Nature takes out of the man what she puts into his chest swells the estate, but kills the owner. Nature hates, monopolies and exceptions.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without.
Ralph Waldo Emerson