Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful. This is the reason why beauty is still escaping out of all analysis. It is not yet possessed, it cannot be handled. …It instantly deserts possession, and flies to an object in the horizon. If I could put my hand on the north star, would it be as beautiful? The sea is lovely, but when we bathe in it, the beauty forsakes all the near water. For the imagination and senses cannot be gratified at the same time. Ralph Waldo Emerson
About This Quote

Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. He is most famous for his book " Past and Present ". In this book he used the above quote as a chapter title.

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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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