“The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Harvard Divinity School Address (Primary source)
Delivered at Harvard, this controversial speech challenged traditional religious doctrines and called for a more personal and intuitive understanding of spirituality. Emerson advocated for a direct experience of God within oneself, rather than relying on intermediaries or historical dogma.
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“Imitation cannot go above its model. The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity. The inventor did it, because it was natural to him, and so in him it has a charm. In the imitator, something else is natural, and he bereaves himself of his own beauty, to come short of another man’s.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“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.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“The years teach much which the days never know.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary sourceMore quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson →
“If Jack’s in love, he’s no judge of Jill’s beauty.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Words may show a man’s wit, but actions his meaning.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self. There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Disputed“Have you something to do tomorrow; do it today.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary sourceImitation Originality Creativity