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The counting-room maxims liberally expounded are laws of the Universe. The merchant's economy is a coarse symbol of the soul's economy. It is, to spend for power, and not for pleasure.

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
Law
Symbol
Universe
Symbols
Expounded
Money
Laws
Liberally
Power
Spend
Merchant
Soul
Room
Coarse
Rooms
Merchants
Economy
Maxims
Pleasure
Counting

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Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.
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Among the multitude of scholars and authors, we feel no hallowing presence we are sensible of a knack and skill rather than of inspiration they have a light, and know not whence it comes, and call it their own their talent is some exaggerated faculty, some overgrown member, so that their strength is a disease.
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The dice of God are always loaded.
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The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them.
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Our friendships hurry to short and poor conclusions, because we have made them a texture of wine and dreams, instead of the toughfibre of the human heart. The laws of friendship are austere and eternal, of one web with the laws of nature and of morals.
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The arts and inventions of each period are only its costume, and do not invigorate men.
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Good nature is stronger than tomahawks.
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I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.
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The secret of ugliness consists not in irregularity, but in being uninteresting.
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The young man reveres men of genius, because, to speak truly, they are more himself than he is.
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Nature is an endless combination and repetition of a very few laws. She hums the old well-known air through innumerable variations.
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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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If you would serve your brother it is fit for you to serve him, do not take back your words when you find that prudent people do not commend you. Be true to your own act, and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant and broken the monotony of a decorous age.
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Thought is the seed of action.
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Women, more than all, are the element and kingdom of illusion. Being fascinated, they fascinate.
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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
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The art of sculpture is long ago perished to any real effect... it is the game of a rude and youthful people, and not the manly labour of a wise and spiritual nation.
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He walks abreast with his days and feels no shame in not 'studying a profession', for he does not postpone his life, but lives already. He has not one chance, but a hundred chances.
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I suppose an entire cabinet of shells would be an expression of the whole human mind a Flora of the whole globe would be so likewise, or a history of beasts or a painting of all the aspects of the clouds. Everything is significant.
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The cardinal virtue of a teacher [is] to protect the pupil from his own influence.
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