"Besides the general infusion of wit to..." - Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Besides the general infusion of wit to heighten civility, the direct splendor of intellectual power is ever welcome in fine society, as the costliest addition to its rule and its credit.
More by Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Every man should let out all the length of all the reigns; should find or make a frank and healthy expression of what force and meaning is in him.”
“The poor and the low have their way of expressing the last facts of philosophy as well as you. "Blessed be nothing," and "The worse things are, the better they are," are proverbs which express the transcendentalism of common life.”
“The virtue you would like to have, assume it is already yours, appropriate it, enter into the part and live the character just as the great actor is absorbed in... the part he plays.”
More on Intellect
“The best conversation is rare. Society seems to have agreed to treat fictions as realities, and realities as fictions; and the simple lover of truth, especially if on very high grounds, as a religious or intellectual seeker, finds himself a stranger and alien.”
“As the grace of man is in the mind, so the beauty of the mind is eloquence.”
“Passion very often makes the wisest men fools, and very often too inspires the greatest fools with wit.”
More on Society
“I don't really identify with America, I don't really feel like an American or part of the American experience, and I don't really feel like a member of the human race, to tell you the truth. I know I am, but I really don't. All the definitions are there, but I don't really feel a part of it. I think I have found a detached point of view, an ideal emotional detachment from the American experience and culture and the human experience and culture and human choices.”
“A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”
“for business reasons, I must preserve the outward signs of sanity.”