“ A great man scarcely knows how he dines, how he dresses ”
 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Heroism (1841). copy citation

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Author Ralph Waldo Emerson
Source Heroism
Topic dress
Date 1841
Language English
Reference in "Essays: First Series"
Note
Weblink https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Essays:_First_Series/Heroism

Context

“But he loves it for its elegancy, not for its austerity. It seems not worth his while to be solemn, and denounce with bitterness flesh-eating or wine-drinking, the use of tobacco, or opium, or tea, or silk, or gold. A great man scarcely knows how he dines, how he dresses; but without railing or precision, his living is natural and poetic. John Eliot, the Indian Apostle, drank water, and said of wine, — "It is a noble, generous liquor, and we should be humbly thankful for it, but, as I remember, water was made before it."” source