Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes About Character
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The victories of character are instant, and victories for all.
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Remarkable trait in the American Character is the union, not very infrequent, of Yankee cleverness with spiritualism.
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A character is like an acrostic or Alexandrian stanza; - read it forward, backward, or across, it still spells the same thing.
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The wise man, the true friend, the finished character, we seek everywhere, and only find in fragments.
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It is always a practical difficulty with clubs to regulate the laws of election so as to exclude peremptorily every social nuisance. Nobody wishes bad manners. We must have loyalty and character.
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Divine persons are character born, or, to borrow a phrase from Napoleon, they are victory organized.
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A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, which has no luster as you turn it in your hand, until you come to a particular angle; then it shows deep and beautiful colors.
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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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In dreams we are true poets; we create the persons of the drama; we give them appropriate figures faces, costumes; they are perfect in their organs, attitudes, manners; moreover they speak after their own characters, not ours; and we listen with surprise to what they say.
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Character is that which can do without success.
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Our opinions of the world, are confessions of character.
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It is the duty of men to judge men only by their actions. Our faculties furnish us with no means of arriving at the motive, the character, the secret self. We call the tree good from its fruits, and the man, from his works.
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The foundation of culture, as of character, is at last the moral sentiment.
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If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.
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Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit.
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The Gods we worship write their names on our faces; be sure of that. And a man will worship something ... That which dominates will determine his life and character. Therefore it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.
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Some men are born to own, and can animate all their possessions. Others cannot: their owning is not graceful; seems to be a compromise of their character: they seem to steal their own dividends.
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The most Indian thing about the Indian is surely not his moccasins or his calumet, his wampum or his stone hatched, but traits of character and sagacity, skill, or passion.
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Gross and obscure natures, however decorated, seem impure shambles; but character gives splendor to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and gray hairs.
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By fate, not option, frugal Nature gave One scent to hyson and to wall-flower, One sound to pine-groves and to water-falls, One aspect to the desert and the lake. It was her stern necessity : all things Are of one pattern made; bird, beast, and flower, Song, picture, form, space, thought, and character Deceive us, seeming to be many things, And are but one.
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For a great nature, it is a happiness to escape a religious training; religion of character is so apt to be invaded.
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That which dominates our imagination and our thoughts will determine our life and character.
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But the wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting; that the State must follow, and notlead the character and progress of the citizen; the strongest usurper is quickly got rid of; and they only who build on Ideas, build for eternity; and that the form of government which prevails, is the expression of what cultivation exists in the population which permits it.
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Every great institution is the lengthened shadow of a single man. His character determines the character of the organization.
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The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius; for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character.
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Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.
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A man's fortunes are the fruit of his character. A man's friends are his magnetisms.
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Every man's nature is a sufficient advertisement to him of the character of his fellows.
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No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.
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So each man, like each plant, has his parasites. A strong, astringent, bilious nature has more truculent enemies than the slugs and moths that fret my leaves. Such a one has curculios, borers, knife-worms; a swindler ate him first, then a client, then a quack, then smooth, plausible gentlemen, bitter and selfish as Moloch.
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