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Society is the stage on which manners are shown novels are the literature. Novels are the journal or record of manners and the new importance of these books derives from the fact, that the novelist begins to penetrate the surface, and treat this part of life more worthily.

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
Life
Stage
Treat
Derives
Books
Begins
Novelist
Literature
Treats
Penetrate
Society
Surface
Journal
Fact
Importance
Shown
Facts
Record
Novelists
Part
Novel
Novels
Book
Records
Manners
Worthily

More quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The shows of the day, the dewy morning, the rainbow, mountains, orchards in blossom, stars, moonlight, shadows in still water, andthe like, if too eagerly hunted, become shows merely, and mock us with their unreality.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Nature suffers nothing to remain in her kingdom which cannot help itself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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And last of all, high over thought, in the world of morals, Fate appears as vindicator, levelling the high, lifting the low, requiring justice in man, and always striking soon or late when justice is not done. What is useful will last, what is hurtful will sink.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The common experience is, that the man fits himself as well as he can to the customary details of that work or trade he falls into, and tends it as a dog turns a spit. Then he is part of the machine he moves the man is lost.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Women, as most susceptible, are the best index of the coming hour.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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It is commonly observed that a sudden wealth, like a prize drawn in a lottery or a large bequest to a poor family, does not permanently enrich. They have served no apprenticeship to wealth, and with the rapid wealth come rapid claims which they do not know how to deny, and the treasure is quickly dissipated.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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To be great, you must be misunderstood
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The soul answers never by words, but by the thing itself that is inquired after.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Never mind the ridicule, never mind the defeat: up again, old heart!-it seems to say,-there is victory yet for all justice and the true romance which the world exists to realize, will be the transformation of genius into practical power.
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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It is one soul which animates all men.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Be not the slave of your own past - plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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You are constantly invited to be what you are.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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As men get on in life, they acquire a love for sincerity, and somewhat less solicitude to be lulled or amused. In the progress ofthe character, there is an increasing faith in the moral sentiment, and a decreasing faith in propositions.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The State is our neighbors our neighbors are the State.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The solid, solid universe Is pervious to Love With bandaged eyes he never errs, Around, below, above. His blinding light He flingeth white On God's and Satan's brood, And reconciles By mystic wiles The evil and the good.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Self sacrifice is the real miracle out of which all the reported miracles grow.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men - that is genius... Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist... What I must do, is all that concerns me not what the people think... Nothing can bring you peace but yourself nothing, but the triumph of principles.
Ralph Waldo Emerson