the mystic must be steadily told,All that you say is just as true without the tedious use of that symbol as with it. Let us have a little algebra, instead of this trite rhetoric,universal signs, instead of these village symbols,and we shall both be gainers. The history of hierarchies seems to show that all religious error consisted in making the symbol too stark and solid, and was at last nothing but an excess of the organ of language.
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About Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was a 19th-century American philosopher. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and critical thinking, as well as a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society and conformity. Read more on Wikipedia →
Themes
- Religion — Exploring belief systems, worship, and spiritual practice