At times it has been doubtful to me if Emerson really knows or feels what Poetry is at its highest, as in the Bible, for instance, or Homer or Shakspeare. I see he covertly or plainly likes best superb verbal polish, or something old or odd

This face is a dog's snout sniffing for garbage, snakes nest in that mouth, I hear the sibilant threat.

It is only the novice in political economy who thinks it is the duty of government to make its citizens happy - government has no such office.

Happiness, not in another place but this place...not for another hour, but this hour.

O America! Because you build for mankind I build for you.

Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background, the countless minor scenes and interiors of the secession war; and it is best they should not. The real war will never get in the books.

Comerado, this is no book,Who touches this, touches a man,(Is it night? Are we here alone?)It is I you hold, and who holds you,I spring from the pages into your arms-decease calls me forth.