The dogma of the mystic offices of Christ being dropped, and he standing on his genius as a moral teacher, 'tis impossible to maintain the old emphasis of his personality; and it recedes, as all persons must, before the sublimity of the moral laws.
Ralph Waldo EmersonWhen at last in a race a new principle appears, an idea--that conserves it; ideas only save races.
Ralph Waldo EmersonBut a public oration is an escapade, a non-committal, an apology, a gag, and not a communication, not a speech, not a man.
Ralph Waldo EmersonA man's power to connect his thought with its proper symbol, and so to utter it, depends on the simplicity of his character, that is, upon his love of truth, and his desire to communicate it without loss.
Ralph Waldo Emerson