Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful. This is the reason why beauty is st… - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but, until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful.

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.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.

The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. Act singly, and what you have already done singly will justify you now.