People are not the better for the sun and moon, the horizon and the trees
 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Spiritual Laws (1841). copy citation

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Author Ralph Waldo Emerson
Source Spiritual Laws
Topic sun moon
Date 1841
Language English
Reference in "Essays: First Series"
Note
Weblink https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Essays:_First_Series/Spiritual_Laws

Context

“"Earth fills her lap with splendors" not her own. The vale of Tempe, Tivoli, and Rome are earth and water, rocks and sky. There are as good earth and water in a thousand places, yet how unaffecting! People are not the better for the sun and moon, the horizon and the trees; as it is not observed that the keepers of Roman galleries, or the valets of painters, have any elevation of thought, or that librarians are wiser men than others. There are graces in the demeanour of a polished and noble person, which are lost upon the eye of a churl.” source