In dealing with the State, we ought to remember that its institutions are not aboriginal, though they existed before we were born; that they are not superior to the citizen; that every one of them was once the act of a single man; every law and usage was a man's expedient to meet a particular case; that they all are imitable, all alterable; we may make as good; we may make better.


Essays: Second Series (ed. 1844)

Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

In dealing with the State, we ought to remember that its institutions are not aboriginal, though they existed before we were born; that they are not...

In dealing with the State, we ought to remember that its institutions are not aboriginal, though they existed before we were born; that they are not...

In dealing with the State, we ought to remember that its institutions are not aboriginal, though they existed before we were born; that they are not...

In dealing with the State, we ought to remember that its institutions are not aboriginal, though they existed before we were born; that they are not...