The mystic must be steadily told, – All that you say is just as true without the tedious use of that symbol as with it. Let us have a little algebra, instead of this trite rhetoric, –universal signs, instead of these village symbols, –and we shall both be gainers. The history of hierarchies seems to show that all religious error consisted in making the symbol too stark and solid, and was at last nothing but an excess of the organ of language. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The mystic must be steadily told,—All that you say is just as true without the tedious use of that symbol as with it. Let us have a little algebra, instead of this trite rhetoric,—universal signs, instead of these village symbols,—and we shall both be gainers. The history of hierarchies seems to show that all religious error consisted in making the symbol too stark and solid, and was at last nothing but an excess of the organ of language. The mystic must be steadily told, that what he says is just as true without the tedious use of that symbol as with it.

Let us have a little algebra, instead of this trite rhetoric, universal signs instead of these village symbols , and we shall both be gainers. If men will not do so when they can do so with safety, when they can do so without danger, when they can do so without being troublesome to one another , when they can do so without losing their time which they are obliged to employ in their present state in this society , then there is no reason why language should not be used with them for this purpose , or why they should not remain longer in this society without being troublesome to one another ; in short why there should not be any society at all .

Source: The Essays Of Ralph Waldo Emerson

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More Quotes By Ralph Waldo Emerson
  1. Love, and you shall be loved.
  2. He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses.
  3. The Artist always has the masters in his eyes.
  4. Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
  5. It is not the length of life, but the depth.
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