“ Every man sees that he is that middle point, whereof every thing may be affirmed and denied with equal reason. He is old, he is young, he is very wise, he is altogether ignorant. ”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Spiritual Laws (1841). copy citation
Author | Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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Source | Spiritual Laws |
Topic | reason middle |
Date | 1841 |
Language | English |
Reference | in "Essays: First Series" |
Note | |
Weblink | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Essays:_First_Series/Spiritual_Laws |
Context
“The wild fertility of nature is felt in comparing our rigid names and reputations with our fluid consciousness. We pass in the world for sects and schools, for erudition and piety, and we are all the time jejune babes. One sees very well how Pyrrhonism grew up. Every man sees that he is that middle point, whereof every thing may be affirmed and denied with equal reason. He is old, he is young, he is very wise, he is altogether ignorant. He hears and feels what you say of the seraphim, and of the tin-pedler. There is no permanent wise man, except in the figment of the Stoics. We side with the hero, as we read or paint, against the coward and the robber;”
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