A Commonplace Book

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The American Scholar 8Emerson 9

 

Meek young men grow up in libraries believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries when they wrote these books.

Hence, instead of Man Thinking we have the bookworm.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson "The American Scholar" An Oration Delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at Cambridge, August 31, 1837.
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