“But genius always looks forward. The eyes of man are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead. Man hopes. Genius creates. To create—to create—is the proof of a divine presence.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The American Scholar (Primary source)
Delivered as a commencement address at Harvard, this speech was famously dubbed America’s Intellectual Declaration of Independence by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., an American polymath. Emerson urged American intellectuals to break free from European traditions and cultivate a uniquely American voice and scholarship, emphasizing the role of the scholar as Man Thinking.
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“The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“The law of nature is, do the thing, and you shall have the power: but they who do not the thing have not the power.”
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— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
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“When you speak to a man, look on his eyes; when he speaks to thee, look on his mouth.”
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— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man will avoid you.”
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