The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity. The inventor did it, because it was natural to him, and so in him it has a charm. In the imitator,… - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Engraved portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson, facing left

The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity. The inventor did it, because it was natural to him, and so in him it has a charm. In the imitator, something else is natural, and he bereaves himself of his own beauty, to come short of another man's.

English
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About Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson (25 May 1803 – 27 April 1882) was an American philosopher, essayist, and poet.

Biography information from Wikiquote · Portrait adapted from Wikimedia Commons, User:Scewing derivative work: 2009 (Public domain / CC0)

Also Known As

Alternative Names: R. W. Emerson Waldo Emerson

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the sense of being which in calm hours arises, we know not how, in the soul, is not diverse from things, from space, from light, from time, from man, but one with them and proceeds obviously from the same source.... Here is the fountain of action and of thought.... We lie in the lap of immense intelligence.

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