Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes About Truth
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We know truth when we see it, from opinion, as we know when we are awake that we are awake.
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If I have renounced the search of truth, if I have come into the port of some pretending dogmatism, some new church, some Schelling or Cousin, I have died to all use of these new events that are born out of prolific time into multitude of life every hour. I am as bankrupt to whom brilliant opportunities offer in vain. He has just foreclosed his freedom, tied his hands, locked himself up and given the key to another to keep.
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The secret of genius is to suffer no fiction to exist for us; to realize all that we know; in the high refinement of modern life,in arts, in sciences, in books, in men, to exact good faith, reality, and a purpose; and first, last, midst, and without end, to honor every truth by use.
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But lest I should mislead any when I have my own head and obey my whims, let me remind the reader that I am only an experimenter.Do not set the least value on what I do, or the least discredit on what I do not, as if I pretended to settle any thing as true or false. I unsettle all things. No facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an endless seeker with no Past at my back.
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Nature forever puts a premium on reality. What is done for effect is seen to be done for effect; what is done for love is felt to be done for love. A man inspires affection and honor because he was not lying in wait for these.
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It is impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself.
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Convert life into truth.
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Whenever a true theory appears, it will be its own evidence. Its test is, that it will explain all phenomena.
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How much more the seeker of abstract truth, who needs periods of isolation, and rapt concentration, and almost a going out of thebody to think!
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The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.
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For he that feeds men serveth few; He serves all who dares be true.
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Every discourse is an approximate answer: but it is of small consequence, that we do not get it into verbs and nouns, whilst it abides for contemplation forever.
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Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.
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But speak the truth, and all nature and all spirits help you with unexpected furtherance. Speak the truth, and all things alive orbrute are vouchers, and the very roots of the grass underground there do seem to stir and move to bear you witness.
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Every man finds a sanction for his simplest claims and deeds, in decisions of his own mind, which he calls Truth and Holiness.
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You need not fear to handle the truth roughly. She is no invalid.
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There is ever a slight suspicion of the burlesque about earnest good men.
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The gentleman is a man of truth.
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Truth is the summit of being.
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Why should you renounce your right to traverse the star-lit deserts of truth, of the premature comforts of an acre, house, and barn? Truth also has its roof, and bed, and board.
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No man has a right perception of any truth, who has not been reacted on by it, so as to be ready to be its martyr.
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No man thoroughly understands a truth until he has contended against it.
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The soul is the perceiver and revealer of truth. We know truth when we see it, let skeptic and scoffer say what they choose. Foolish people ask you, when you have spoken what they do not wish to hear, 'How do you know it is truth, and not an error of your own?' We know truth when we see it, from opinion, as we know when we are awake that we are awake.
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Truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men.
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Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, else it is none.
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Though love repine, and reason chafe, There came a voice without reply,- "'Tis man's perdition to be safe, When for the truth he ought to die."
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Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.
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In private places, among sordid objects, an act of truth or heroism seems at once to draw to itself the sky as its temple, the sun as its cradle. Nature stretches out her arms to embrace man, only let his thoughts be of equal greatness.
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A life in harmony with nature, the love of truth and virtue, will purge the eyes to understanding her text.
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Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.
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