I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make a valued adviser who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the church. On my saying, What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested, - "But these impulses may be from below, not from above." I replied, 'They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the devil's child, I will live then from the devil.'


Select Essays and Poems (ed. 1808)

Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make a valued adviser who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the...

I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make a valued adviser who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the...

I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make a valued adviser who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the...

I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make a valued adviser who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the...