“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
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“It was for beauty that the world was made.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops—no, but the kind of man the country turns out.”
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“If Jack’s in love, he’s no judge of Jill’s beauty.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Have you something to do tomorrow; do it today.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think.”
— Ayn Rand Primary source“Words may show a man’s wit, but actions his meaning.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary sourceImitation Originality Creativity