A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now... Essays, First Series - Page 52by Ralph Waldo Emerson - 1879 - 290 pagesFull view - About this book
| Brainard Gardner Smith - 1891 - 188 pages
...packthread; do. Else, if you would be a man, speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon-balls ; and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks, in hard...though it contradict everything you said to-day. " Ah, then," exclaim the aged ladies, " you shall be sure to be misunderstood." Misunderstood! It is a right... | |
| John Christie - 1892 - 230 pages
...minds, adored by little statesmen, and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak of what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again,... | |
| 1892 - 402 pages
...little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divinesWith consistency a great soul has nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Out upon your guarded lips. Sew them up with packthread, do. Else if you would be a man, speak what... | |
| James Thomson - 1892 - 300 pages
...consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. Speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon-balls, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradicts every word you said to-day." After this, it is scarcely worth while to remark his thorough... | |
| Ralph Waldo Emerson - 1893 - 126 pages
...adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has sirmply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with...his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard7 words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow 1 Feminine, because decorous and timid. 2 To make grimaces.... | |
| Ralph Waldo Emerson - 1893 - 168 pages
...little statesmen and philosophers and divines. August Twenty-eighth. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. August Twenty-ninth. Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions,... | |
| 1893 - 378 pages
...conceived as it is forcibly expressed: — " Speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon-balls, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks, in hard words again ; though it contradicts everything you have said to-day."* Nearly ten years have elapsed, since 1 described, to... | |
| Harriette Merrick Plunkett - 1894 - 256 pages
...over his shoulder, but bravely, and at the risk of being misunderstood, followed Emerson's precept : " Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow...though it contradict everything you said to-day." Being convinced in his inmost soul that God wanted just such a man as he was in the time and place... | |
| Samuel Colcord Bartlett - 1894 - 530 pages
...consisten.cy. If you would be a man, speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon balls, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard...though it contradict everything you said to-day." The cannon balls, however, might be reserved for the day after to-morrow. It is nevertheless a great... | |
| John A. Kersey - 1894 - 586 pages
...consistency, in openly rejecting all consistency- He exclaims — "With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. * * * To be great is to be misunderstood." If the converse of this last proposition — to be misunderstood... | |
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