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We Are Not Free To Use Today, Or To Promise Tomorrow, Because We Are Already Mortgaged To Yesterday.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
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We Are Not Free

Ralph Waldo Emerson
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We Are Not Free To Use Today, Or To Promise Tomorrow, Because We Are Already Mortgaged To Yesterday.

Understanding the Quote: "we are not free to use today, or to promise tomorrow, because..."

This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects deeply on the theme of past. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Past, Yesterday, Promise, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Ralph Waldo Emerson interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson is celebrated for insightful thoughts on past and yesterday. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Past
Yesterday
Promise
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That Which Befits Us, Embosomed In Beauty And Wonder As We Are, Is Cheerfulness, And Courage, And The Endeavor To Realize Our Aspirations. Shall Not The Heart Which Has Received So Much, Trust The Power By Which It Lives? May It Not Quit Other Leadings, And Listen To The Soul That Has Guided It So Gently, And Taught It So Much, Secure That The Future Will Be Worthy Of The Past?
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Every Day, A Little Sadder, A Little Madder. Will Someone Get Me A Ladder?
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We Do What We Must, And Call It By The Best Names.
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The Music That Can Deepest Reach And Cure All Ill Is Cordial Speech.
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As Soon As There Is Life There Is Danger.
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For No Man Can Write Anything Who Does Not Think That What He Writes Is, For The Time, The History Of The World.
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The World Globes Itself In A Drop Of Dew.
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The Glory Of The Farmer Is That, In The Division Of Labors, It Is His Part To Create. All Trade Rests At Last On His Primitive Activity. He Stands Close To Nature; He Obtains From The Earth The Bread And The Meat. The Food Which Was Not, He Causes To Be.
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If You Have A Nation Of Men Who Have Risen To That Height Of Moral Cultivation That They Will Not Declare War Or Carry Arms, For They Have Not So Much Madness Left In Their Brains, You Have A Nation Of Lovers, Of Benefactors, Of True, Great, And Able Men.
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The Delicate Muses Lose Their Head If Their Attention Is Once Diverted. Perhaps If You Were Successful Abroad In Talking And Dealing With Men, You Would Not Come Back To Your Bookshelf And Your Task. When The Spirit Chooses You For Its Scribe To Publish Some Commandment, It Makes You Odious To Men And Men Odious To You, And You Shall Accept That Loathsomeness With Joy. The Moth Must Fly To The Lamp, And You Must Solve Those Questions Though You Die.
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She Shows Us Only Surfaces, But She Is Million-fathoms Deep.
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Philanthropic And Religious Bodies Do Not Commonly Make Their Executive Officers Out Of Saints.
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Senators And Presidents Have Climbed So High With Pain Enough, Not Because They Think The Place Specially Agreeable, But As An Apology For Real Worth, And To Vindicate Their Manhood In Our Eyes. This Conspicuous Chair Is Their Compensation To Themselves For Being Of A Poor, Cold, Hard Nature.
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Read Proudly--put The Duty Of Being Read Invariably On The Author. If He Is Not Read, Whose Fault Is It? I Am Quite Ready To Be Charmed, But I Shall Not Make-believe I Am Charmed.
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In The Last Analysis, Love Is Only The Reflection Of A Man's Own Worthiness From Other Men.
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The Man (or Woman) Who Can Make Hard Things Easy Is The Educator.
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What You Persist In Doing Gets Easier. The Task Hasn't Changed, But Your Ability To Do It Has Increased.
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In Actions Of Enthusiasm, This Drawback Appears: But In Those Lower Activities, Which Have No Higher Aim Than To Make Us More Comfortable And More Cowardly, In Actions Of Cunning, Actions That Steal And Lie, Actions That Divorce The Speculative From The Practical Faculty, And Put A Ban On Reason And Sentiment, There Is Nothing Else But Drawback And Negation.
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The Light By Which We See In This World Comes Out From The Soul Of The Observer. Wherever Any Noble Sentiment Dwelt, It Made The Faces And Houses Around To Shine. Nay, The Powers Of This Busy Brain Are Miraculous And Illimitable.
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The Religion Which Is To Guide And Fulfill The Present And Coming Ages, Whatever Else It Be, Must Be Intellectual. The Scientific Mind Must Have A Faith Which Is Science.
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Nothing Is At Last Sacred But The Integrity Of Your Own Mind.
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The Greatest Meliorator Of The World Is Selfish, Huckstering Trade.
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But I Shall Hear Without Pain, That I Play The Courtier Very Ill, And Talk Of That Which I Do Not Well Understand.
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Colleges, In Like Manner, Have Their Indispensable Office,--to Teach Elements. But They Can Only Highly Serve Us, When They Aim Not To Drill, But To Create; When They Gather From Far Every Ray Of Various Genius To Their Hospitable Halls, And, By The Concentrated Fires, Set The Hearts Of Their Youth On Flame.
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Life Is March Weather, Savage And Serene In One Hour.
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Natural Religion Supplies Still All The Facts Which Are Disguised Under The Dogma Of Popular Creeds. The Progress Of Religion Is Steadily To Its Identity With Morals.
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Right Is More Beautiful Than Private Affection, And Is Compatible With Universal Wisdom.
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The God Who Made New Hampshire Taunted The Lofty Land With Little Men.
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Proverbs, Like The Sacred Books Of Each Nation, Are The Sanctuary Of The Intuitions. That Which The Droning World, Chained To Appearances, Will Not Allow The Realist To Say In His Own Words, It Will Suffer Him To Say In Proverbs Without Contradiction.
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Convert Life Into Truth.
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You Shall Not Come Nearer A Man By Getting Into His House.
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There Is A Good Ear, In Some Men, That Draws Supplies To Virtue Out Of Very Indifferent Nutriment.
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Let No One Honour Me With Tears, Or Bury Me With Lamentation. Why? Because I Fly Hither And Thither, Living In The Mouths Of Me.
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Whatever Appeals To The Imagination, By Transcending The Ordinary Limits Of Human Ability, Wonderfully Encourages And Liberates Us.
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Let Us Be Silent — So We May Hear The Whisper Of The Gods.
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Every Friend Whom Not Thy Fantastic Will But The Great And Tender Heart In Thee Craveth, Shall Lock Thee In His Embrace. And This Because The Heart In Thee Is The Heart Of All; Not A Valve, Not A Wall, Not An Intersection Is There Anywhere In Nature, But One Blood Rolls Uninterruptedly In Endless Circulation Through All Men, As The Water Of The Globe Is All One Sea, And, Truly Seen, Its Tide Is One.
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A Lady With Whom I Was Riding In The Forest Said To Me That The Woods Always Seemed To Her To Wait, As If The Genii Who Inhabit Them Suspend Their Deeds Until The Wayfarer Had Passed Onward; A Thought Which Poetry Has Celebrated In The Dance Of The Fairies, Which Breaks Off On The Approach Of Human Feet.
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A Man Passes For That He Is Worth. What He Is Engraves Itself On His Face, On His Form, On His Fortunes, In Letters Of Light. Concealment Avails Him Nothing; Boasting Nothing. There Is Confession In The Glances Of Our Eyes; In Our Smiles; In Salutations; And The Grasp Of Hands.
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Give Me Wine To Wash Me Clean Of The Weather-stains Of Cares
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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.
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Make Youself Necessary To Someone.
I Am Become A Transparent Eyeball.
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In The Matter Of Religion, People Eagerly Fasten Their Eyes On The Difference Between Their Own Creed And Yours; Whilst The Charm Of The Study Is In Finding The Agreements And Identities In All The Religions Of Humanity.
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We Want But Two Or Three Friends, But These We Cannot Do Without, And They Serve Us In Every Thought We Think.
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Those Who Have Ruled Human Destinies, Like Planets, For Thousands Of Years, Were Not Handsome Men.
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My Giant Goes With Me Wherever I Go.
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The Private Life Of One Man Shall Be A More Illustrious Monarchy,--more Formidable To Its Enemy, More Sweet And Serene In Its Influence To Its Friend, Than Any Kingdom In History. For A Man, Rightly Viewed, Comprehendeth The Particular Natures Of All Men.
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An Actually Existing Fly Is More Important Than A Possibly Existing Angel.
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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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The Moral Equalizes All; Enriches, Empowers All. It Is The Coin Which Buys All, And Which All Find In Their Pocket. Under The Whipof The Driver, The Slave Shall Feel His Equality With Saints And Heroes.
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There Is No Den In The Wide World To Hide A Rogue. Commit A Crime, And The Earth Is Made Of Glass. Commit A Crime, And It Seems As If A Coat Of Snow Fell On The Ground, Such As Reveals In The Woods The Track Of Every Partridge And Fox And Squirrel And Mole.
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The Civilized Man Has Built A Coach, But Has Lost The Use Of His Feet.
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This Very Certain That Each Man Carries In His Eye The Exact Indication Of His Rank In The Immense Scale Of Men, And We Are Always Learning To Read It. A Complete Man Should Need No Auxiliaries To His Personal Presence.
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Love Is Like A Hunter, Who Cares Not For The Game When Once Caught, Which He May Have Pursued With The Most Intense And Breathless Eagerness. Love Is Strongest In Pursuit; Friendship In Possession.
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It In Every Fair Face, Every Fair Sky, Every Fair Flower.
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We Cannot Forgive Another For Not Being Ourselves.
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What Your Heart Thinks Is Great, Is Great. The Soul's Emphasis Is Always Right.
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Every Stoic Was A Stoic; But In Christendom Where Is The Christian?
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He Needs No Library, For He Has Not Done Thinking; No Church, For He Is Himself A Prophet; No Statute Book, For He Hath The Lawgiver; No Money, For He Is Value Itself; No Road, For He Is At Home Where He Is.
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As Long As A Man Stands In His Own Way, Everything Seems To Be In His Way.
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Man Is The End Of Nature; Nothing So Easily Organizes Itself In Every Part Of The Universe As He; No Moss, No Lichen Is So Easilyborn; And He Takes Along With Him And Puts Out From Himself The Whole Apparatus Of Society And Condition Extempore, As An Army Encamps In A Desert, And Where All Was Just Now Blowing Sand, Creates A White City In An Hour, A Government, A Market, A Place For Feasting, For Conversation, And For Love.
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When A Man Says To Me, "i Have The Intensest Love Of Nature," At Once I Know That He Has None.
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They Think Him The Best Dressed Man, Whose Dress Is So Fit For His Use That You Cannot Notice Or Remember To Describe It.
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Thus Grows Up Fashion, An Equivocal Semblance, The Most Puissant, The Most Fantastic And Frivolous, The Most Feared And Followed, And Which Morals And Violence Assault In Vain.
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In Failing Circumstances No One Can Be Relied On To Keep Their Integrity.
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By Degrees We May Come To Know The Primitive Sense Of The Permanent Objects Of Nature, So That The World Shall Be To Us An Open Book, And Every Form Significant Of Its Hidden Life And Final Cause.
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Envy Is The Tax Which All Distinction Must Pay.
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A Man Is The Facade Of A Temple Wherein All Wisdom And All Good Abide.
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If You Act, You Show Character; If You Sit Still, You Show It; If You Sleep You Show It.
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I Am The Lover Of Uncontained And Immortal Beauty. In The Wilderness, I Find Something More Dear And Connate Than In Streets Or Villages. In The Tranquil Landscape, And Especially In The Distant Line Of The Horizon, Man Beholds Somewhat As Beautiful As His Own Nature.
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A Man Is But A Little Thing In The Midst Of The Objects Of Nature, Yet, By The Moral Quality Radiating From His Countenance, He May Abolish All Considerations Of Magnitude, And In His Manners Equal The Majesty Of The World.
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Let A Man Attain The Highest And Broadest Culture That Any American Has Possessed, Then Let Him Die By Sea-storm, Railroad Collision, Or Other Accident, And All America Will Acquiesce That The Best Thing Has Happened To Him; That, After The Education Has Gone Far, Such Is The Expensiveness Of America, That The Best Use To Put A Fine Person To Is To Drown Him To Save His Board.
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I Find It More Credible, Since It Is Anterior Information, That One Man Should Know Heaven, As The Chinese Say, Than That So Many Men Should Know The World.
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The God Of Victory Is Said To Be One-handed, But Peace Gives Victory To Both Sides.
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What Can We See, Read, Acquire, But Ourselves. Take The Book, My Friend, And Read Your Eyes Out, You Will Never Find There What I Find.
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It Is Curious That Christianity, Which Is Idealism, Is Sturdily Defended By The Brokers, And Steadily Attacked By The Idealists.
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Persons Are Fine Things, But They Cost So Much! For Thee I Must Pay Me.
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A Woman's Strength Is The Unresistible Might Of Weakness.
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Curiosity Is Lying In Wait For Every Secret.
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Waiting
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The Moral Sense Is Always Supported By The Permanent Interest Of The Parties. Else, I Know Not How, In Our World, Any Good Would Ever Get Done.
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To Aim To Convert A Man By Miracles Is A Profanation Of The Soul.
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A Determined Man, By His Very Attitude And The Tone Of His Voice, Puts A Stop To Defeat, And Begins To Conquer.
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Go Into One Of Our Cool Churches, And Begin To Count The Words That Might Be Spared, And In Most Places The Entire Sermon Will Go.
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There Is More In Every Person's Soul Than We Think.
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There Is A Time When A Man Distinguishes The Idea Of Felicity From The Idea Of Wealth; It Is The Beginning Of Wisdom.
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You Will Always Find Those Who Think They Know What Is Your Duty Better Than You Know It.
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I Think No Virtue Goes With Size;the Reason Of All Cowardiceis, That Men Are Overgrown,and, To Be Valiant, Must Come Downto The Titmouse Dimension.
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The Terrors Of The Child Are Quite Reasonable, And Add To His Loveliness; For His Utter Ignorance And Weakness, And His Enchanting Indignation On Such A Small Basis Of Capital Compel Every Bystander To Take His Part.
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If The Colleges Were Better, If They Had The Power Of Imparting Valuable Thought, Creative Principles, Truths Which Become Powers, Thoughts Which Become Talents, - If They Could Cause That A Mind Not Profound Should Become Profound, - We Should All Rush To Their Gates: Instead Of Contriving Inducements To Draw Students, You Would Need To Set Police At The Gates To Keep Order In The In-rushing Multitude.
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Wherever Snow Falls, Or Water Flows, Or Birds Fly, Wherever Day And Night Meet In Twilight, Wherever The Blue Heaven Is Hung By Clouds, Or Sown With Stars, Wherever Are Forms With Transparent Boundaries, Wherever Are Outlets Into Celestial Space, Wherever Is Danger, And Awe, And Love, There Is Beauty, Plenteous As Rain, Shed For Thee, And Though Thou Shouldest Walk The World Over, Thou Shalt Not Be Able To Find A Condition Inopportune Or Ignoble.
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A Work Of Art Is An Abstract Or Epitome Of The World. It Is The Result Or Expression Of Nature, In Miniature. For, Although The Works Of Nature Are Innumerable And All Different, The Result Or The Expression Of Them All Is Similar And Single.
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The State Is A Poor, Good Beast Who Means The Best: It Means Friendly.
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The Unsaid Part Is The Best Of Every Discourse.
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To Me, However, The Question Of The Times Resolved Itself Into A Practical Question Of The Conduct Of Life. How Shall I Live? We Are Incompetent To Solve The Times. Our Geometry Cannot Span The Huge Orbits Of The Prevailing Ideas, Behold Their Return, And Reconcile Their Opposition. We Can Only Obey Our Own Polarity.
Life
Ideas
Orbit
He, Who Loves The Bristle Of Bayonets, Only Sees In Their Glitter What Beforehand He Feels In His Hand.
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The Ragged Cliff Has Thousand Faces In A Thousand Hours.
Faces
Cliffs
Hours
It Is Dainty To Be Sick If You Have Leisure And Convenience For It.
Sick
Leisure
Illness
We Walk Alone In The World. Friends, Such As We Desire, Are Dreams And Fables.
Dream
Desire
World
The Simplicity Of The Universe Is Very Different From The Simplicity Of A Machine. The Simplicity Of Nature Is Not That Which May Be Easily Read But Is Inexhaustible. The Last Analysis Can No Wise Be Made.
Wise
Nature
Simplicity
We Are Shut Up In Schools And College Recitation Rooms For Ten Or Fifteen Years, And Come Out At Last With A Bellyful Of Words And Do Not Know A Thing.
Education
Learning
School
In Imitation Is A Bit Suicide.
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Imitation
Bits
All Successful Men Have Agreed In One Thing -- They Were Causationists. They Believed That Things Went Not By Luck, But By Law; That There Was Not A Weak Or A Cracked Link In The Chain That Joins The First And Last Of Things.
Successful
Science
Men
There Is Guidance For Each Of Us, And By Lowly Listening We Shall Hear The Right Word.
Listening
Guidance
Right Words
Character Repudiates Intellect, Yet Excites It; And Character Passes Into Thought, Is Published So, And Then Is Ashamed Before Newflashes Of Moral Worth.
Character
Morality
Ashamed
Teach Me Your Mood, O Patient Stars. Who Climb Each Night, The Ancient Sky. Leaving On Space No Shade, No Scars, No Trace Of Age, No Fear To Die.
Stars
Night
Sky
The Hues Of The Opal, The Light Of The Diamond, Are Not To Be Seen If The Eye Is Too Near.
Wise
Wisdom
Clever
We Are Not Very Much To Blame For Our Bad Marriages. We Live Amid Hallucinations, And Especial Trap Is Laid To Trip Up Our Feet With, And All Are Tripped Up First Or Last. But The Mighty Mother, Who Had Been So Sly With Us, As If She Felt She Owed Us Some Indemnity, Insinuates Into The Pandora Box Of Marriage Some Deep And Serious Benefits, And Some Great Joys.
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Feet
Joy
Many A Man Had Taken The First Step. With Every Additional Step You Enhance Immensely The Value Of Your First.
Taken
Commitment
Firsts
As We Are, So We Do; And As We Do, So Is It Done To Us; We Are The Builders Of Our Fortunes.
Destiny
Done
Fortune
Self-reliance Is Its Aversion. It Loves Not Realities And Creators, But Names And Customs.
Love
Reality
Self
Railroad Iron Is A Magician's Rod, In Its Power To Evoke The Sleeping Energies Of Land And Water.
Sleep
Power
Land
To Map Out A Course Of Action And Follow It To An End Requires Some Of The Same Courage That A Soldier Needs.
Courage
Decide Upon
Soldier
Beauty Is The Moment Of Transition, As If The Form Were Just Ready To Flow Into Other Forms.
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Flow
Transition
Genius Is The Naturalist Or Geographer Of The Supersensible Regions, And Draws Their Map; And, By Acquainting Us With New Fields Of Activity, Cools Our Affection For The Old. These Are At Once Accepted As The Reality, Of Which The World We Have Conversed With Is The Show.
Reality
Genius
World
Ne Te Quaesiveris Extra." (do Not Seek For Things Outside Of Yourself)
Extras
Every Man Is A Borrower And A Mimic, Life Is Theatrical And Literature A Quotation.
Life
Men
Literature
We Teach Boys To Be Such Men As We Are. We Do Not Teach Them To Aspire To Be All They Can. We Do Not Give Them A Training As If Webelieved In Their Noble Nature. We Scarce Educate Their Bodies. We Do Not Train The Eye And The Hand. We Exercise Their Understandings To The Apprehension And Comparison Of Some Facts, To A Skill In Numbers, In Words; We Aim To Make Accountants, Attorneys, Engineers; But Not To Make Able, Earnest, Great- Hearted Men.
Education
Eye
Exercise
Why Should I Hasten To Solve Every Riddle Which Life Offers Me? I Am Well Assured That The Questioner, Who Brings Me So Many Problems, Will Bring Me The Answers Also, In Due Time.
Attitude
Answers
Problem
Every Burned Book Enlightens The World.
Book
World
Censorship
Open The Doors Of Opportunity To Talent And Virtue And They Will Do Themselves Justice, And Property Will Not Be In Bad Hands.
Opportunity
Doors
Hands
The World Is His Who Can See Through Its Pretension. What Deafness, What Stone-blind Custom, What Overgrown Error You Behold, Is There Only By Sufferance,--by Your Sufferance. See It To Be A Lie, And You Have Already Dealt It Its Mortal Blow.
Lying
Blow
Errors
Intellect Is A Fire; Rash And Pitiless It Melts This Wonderful Bone-house Which Is Called Man. Genius Even, As It Is The Greatestgood, Is The Greatest Harm.
Men
Fire
House
There Is No Calamity That Right Words Will Not Begin To Redress
Redress
Calamity
Right Words
Make The Most Of Yourself, For That Is All There Is Of You.
Inspirational
Life
Success
He That Writes To Himself Writes To An Eternal Public. That Statement Only Is Fit To Be Made Public, Which You Have Come At In Attempting To Satisfy Your Own Curiosity.
Writing
Curiosity
Fit
Spring Still Makes Spring In The Mind When Sixty Years Are Told: Love Wakes Anew This Throbbing Heart, And We Are Never Old Over The Winter Glaciers I See The Summer Glow And Through The Wind-piled Snowdrift The Warm Rosebuds Below.
Summer
Spring
Heart
The Divine Gift Is Ever The Instant Life, Which Receives And Uses And Creates, And Can Well Bury The Old In The Omnipotency With Which Nature Decomposes All Her Harvest For Recomposition.
Use
Harvest
Divine
Hast Thou Named All The Birds Without A Gun?
Gun
Bird
Good As Is Discourse, Silence Is Better And Shames It.
Silence
Shame
Discourse
We Are Adapted To Infinity. We Are Hard To Please, And Love Nothing Which Ends: And In Nature Is No End; But Every Thing, At The End Of One Use, Is Lifted Into A Superior, And The Ascent Of These Things Climbs Into Daemonic And Celestial Natures.
And Love
Use
Ascent
The Heroic Cannot Be The Common, Nor The Common The Heroic.
Hero
Common
Reconcile
Motion Or Change, And Identity Or Rest, Are The First And Second Secrets Of Nature: Motion And Rest. The Whole Code Of Her Laws May Be Written On The Thumbnail, Or The Signet Of A Ring.
Change
Law
Secret
War Disorganizes, But It Is To Reorganize.
War
There Is A Power In Love To Divine Another's Destiny Better Than That Other Can, And By Heroic Encouragements, Hold Him To His Task. What Has Friendship So Signal As Its Sublime Attraction To Whatever Virtue Is In Us?
Friendship
Encouragement
Destiny
I Look On Trade And Every Mechanical Craft As Education Also. But Let Me Discriminate What Is Precious Herein. There Is In Each Ofthese Works An Act Of Invention, An Intellectual Step, Or Short Series Of Steps Taken; That Act Or Step Is The Spiritual Act; All The Rest Is Mere Repetition Of The Same A Thousand Times.
Education
Spiritual
Taken
No Man Has Ever Had A Point Of Pride That Was Not Injurious To Him.
Pride
Men
A Friend Is Janus-faced: He Looks To The Past And The Future. He Is The Child Of All My Foregoing Hours, The Prophet Of Those To Come, And The Harbinger Of A Greater Friend.
Friendship
Children
Future
I Believe It Is The Conviction Of The Purest Men, That The Net Amount Of Man And Man Does Not Much Vary. Each Is Incomparably Superior To His Companion In Some Faculty. His Want Of Skill In Other Directions, Has Added To His Fitness For His Own Work.
Believe
Equality
Men
Build, Therefore, Your Own World. As Fast As You Conform Your Life To The Pure Idea In Your Mind, That Will Unfold It's Great Proportions.
Commitment
Ideas
Discipline
Our Housekeeping Is Mendicant, Our Arts, Our Occupations, Our Marriages, Our Religion We Have Not Chosen But Society Has Chosen For Us.
Art
Religion
Occupation
If Government Knew How, I Should Like To See It Check, Not Multiply, The Population. When It Reaches Its True Law Of Action, Every Man That Is Born Will Be Hailed As Essential.
Men
Law
Essentials
The Whole Course Of Things Goes To Teach Us Faith. We Need Only Obey. There Is Guidance For Each Of Us, And By Lowly Listening We Shall Hear The Right Word. . . . Place Yourself In The Middle Of The Stream Of Power And Wisdom Which Flows Into You As Life, Place Yourself In The Full Center Of That Flood, Then You Are Without Effort Impelled To Truth, To Right, And A Perfect Contentment.
Life
Perfect
Effort
We Must Be Courteous To A Man As We Are To A Picture, Which We Are Willing To Give The Advantage Of A Good Light.
Men
Light
Giving
The Pleasure Of Life Is According To The Man That Lives It, And Not According To The Work Or Place.
Men
Life Is
Pleasure
We Are Always Getting Ready To Live But Never Living.
Life
Carpe Diem
Law Of Attraction
If A Man Owns Land, The Land Owns Him.
Home
Men
Land
A New Person Is To Me A Great Event, And Hinders Me From Sleep. I Have Often Had Fine Fancies About Persons Which Have Given Me Delicious Hours; But The Joy Ends In The Day; It Yields No Fruit.
Friendship
Sleep
Yield
The Power Which Resides In Him Is New In Nature, And None But He Knows What That Is Which He Can Do, Nor Does He Know Until He Has Tried.
Nature
Power
Doe
Let Him Go Where He Will, He Can Only Find So Much Beauty Or Worth As He Carries.
Beauty
Let Him Go
Carrie
As Many Languages As He Has, As Many Friends, As Many Arts And Trades, So Many Times Is He A Man.
Art
Men
Language
Heroism Feels And Never Reasons, And Therefore Is Always Right.
Military
Hero
History
Deep Insight Will Always, Like Nature, Ultimate Its Thought In A Thing.
Insight
Ultimate
Never Self-possessed, Or Prudent, Love Is All Abandonment.
Love
Self
Prudent
What Is Originality? It Is Being One's Self, And Reporting Accurately What We See And Are.
Self
Originality
Accuracy
The Sentence Must Also Contain Its Own Apology For Being Spoken.
Apology
Sentences
Make Yourself Necessary To The World, And Mankind Will Give You Bread.
What Matters
Giving
World
The Dogma Of The Mystic Offices Of Christ Being Dropped, And He Standing On His Genius As A Moral Teacher, 'tis Impossible To Maintain The Old Emphasis Of His Personality; And It Recedes, As All Persons Must, Before The Sublimity Of The Moral Laws.
Teacher
Jesus
Law
Walking Has The Best Value As Gymnastics Of The Mind.
Gymnastics
Mind
Walking
If Eyes Were Made For Seeing, Then Beauty Is Its Own Excuse For Being.
Life
Beauty
Eye
Shakespeare Carries Us To Such A Lofty Strain Of Intelligent Activity, As To Suggest A Wealth Which Beggars His Own; And We Then Feel That The Splendid Works Which He Has Created, And Which In Other Hours We Extol As A Sort Of Self-existent Poetry, Take No Stronger Hold Of Real Nature Than The Shadow Of A Passing Traveller On The Rock. The Inspiration Which Uttered Itself In Hamlet And Lear Could Utter Things As Good From Day To Day, For Ever.
Real
Inspiration
Intelligent
Meantime The Education Of The General Mind Never Stops. The Reveries Of The True And Simple Are Prophetic. What The Tender Poeticyouth Dreams, And Prays, And Paints Today, But Shuns The Ridicule Of Saying Aloud, Shall Presently Be The Resolutions Of Public Bodies, Then Shall Be Carried As Grievance And Bill Of Rights Through Conflict And War, And Then Shall Be Triumphant Law And Establishment For A Hundred Years, Until It Gives Place, In Turn, To New Prayers And Pictures.
Dream
Prayer
War
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.
Nature
Wind
Weather
Insist On Yourself. Never Imitate.
Inspirational
Karma
Encouragement
Fractures Well Cured Make Us More Strong.
Inspirational
Strong
Motivation
The Things Taught In Schools & Colleges Are Not An Education But The Means Of Education.
Graduation
Education
Teaching
Fear Defeats More People Than Any Other One Thing In The World.
Inspirational
Motivational
Fear
Because The Soul Is Progressive, It Never Quite Repeats Itself, But In Every Act Attempts The Production Of A New And Fairer Whole.
Creativity
Soul
Never Quit
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