Imitation Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Imitation. Here they are! All 100 of them:

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By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
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Confucius
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It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
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Herman Melville
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Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
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James Baldwin
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Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television.
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Woody Allen
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The Bhagavad Gita--that ancient Indian Yogic text--says that it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection.
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Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
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You could say sorry," suggested Harry bluntly. "What, and get attacked by another flock of canaries?" muttered Ron. "What did you have to imitate her for?" "She laughed at my mustache!" "So did I, it was the stupidest thing I've ever seen.
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J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6))
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I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing.
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Mae West
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It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection.
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Anonymous (The Bhagavad Gita)
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Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.
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Oscar Wilde
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I turn and put my lips close to Peeta's and drop my eyelids in imitation... "He offered me sugar and wanted to know all my secrets," I say in my best seductive voice.
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Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
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Envy is ignorance, Imitation is Suicide.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance)
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Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
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Eric Hoffer (The Passionate State of Mind: And Other Aphorisms)
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Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self. There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance and Other Essays (Dover Thrift Editions: Philosophy))
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Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female β€” whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male.
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Simone de Beauvoir
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I don’t want life to imitate art. I want life to be art.
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Carrie Fisher
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If I need you I'll give you a signal.' 'What signal?' 'I'll imitate the scream of a terrified little girl
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Jim Butcher
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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.
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Oscar Wilde
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Frank imitated the voice of Vitellius: 'They're wimps! Back in my day, we died all the time, and we liked it!
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Rick Riordan (The Son of Neptune (The Heroes of Olympus, #2))
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Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.
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Edmund Burke
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Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.
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T.S. Eliot (The Sacred Wood)
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I had all the characteristics of a human beingβ€”flesh, blood, skin, hairβ€”but my depersonalization was so intense, had gone so deep, that my normal ability to feel compassion had been eradicated, the victim of a slow, purposeful erasure. I was simply imitating reality, a rough resemblance of a human being, with only a dim corner of my mind functioning
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Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho)
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A prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent, so that if he does not attain to their greatness, at any rate he will get some tinge of it.
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NiccolΓ² Machiavelli (The Prince)
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It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. I was so preposterously serious in those days, such a humorless little prig. Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me. When it comes to dying even. Nothing ponderous, or portentous, or emphatic. No rhetoric, no tremolos, no self conscious persona putting on its celebrated imitation of Christ or Little Nell. And of course, no theology, no metaphysics. Just the fact of dying and the fact of the clear light. So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly my darling, on tiptoes and no luggage, not even a sponge bag, completely unencumbered.
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Aldous Huxley (Island)
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Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can offer with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation, but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Aaah ... said Ron, imitating Professor Trelawney’s mystical whisper, when two Neptunes appear in the sky it is a sure sign that a midget in glasses is being born, Harry...
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J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
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I said breathe. Not do a fish-out of-water imitation.
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Karen Marie Moning (Darkfever (Fever, #1))
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I've been imitated so well I've heard people copy my mistakes.
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Jimi Hendrix
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Blessed is he who has learned to admire but not envy, to follow but not imitate, to praise but not flatter, and to lead but not manipulate.
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William Arthur Ward
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It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love.
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J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6))
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Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: β€œIt’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to." [MovieMaker Magazine #53 - Winter, January 22, 2004 ]
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Jim Jarmusch
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Through others we become ourselves.
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Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky
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You've got no sense of humor." "I'm going to laugh really hard after I kick your ass.
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J.D. Robb (Imitation in Death (In Death, #17))
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Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.
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Thomas Γ  Kempis (The Imitation of Christ)
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Does anything in nature despair except man? An animal with a foot caught in a trap does not seem to despair. It is too busy trying to survive. It is all closed in, to a kind of still, intense waiting. Is this a key? Keep busy with survival. Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain, psychic pain. Sit it out. Let it all pass. Let it go.
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May Sarton (Journal of a Solitude)
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I believe that love--not imitation--is the sincerest form of flattery. Your imitator thinks that you can be duplicated; your lover knows you can't.
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Marilyn vos Savant
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Vhat ozzer abilities do you haf?" ter Borcht snapped, which his assistant waited, pen in hand. Gazzy thought. "I have X-ray vision," he said. He peered at ter Borcht's chest, then blinked and looked alarmed. Ter Borcht was startled for a second, but then he frowned. "Don't write dat down," he told his assistant in irritation. The assistant froze in midsentence. "You. Do you haf any qualities dat distinguish you in any way?" Nudge chewed on a fingernail. "You mean, like, besides the WINGS?" She shook her shoulders gently, and her beautiful fawn-colored wings unfolded a bit. His face flushed, and I felt like cheering. "Yes," he said stiffly. "Besides de vings." "Hmm. Besides de vings." Nudge tapped one finger against her chin. "Um..." Her face brightened. "I once ate nine Snickers bars in one sitting. Without barfing. That was a record!" "Hardly a special talent," ter Borcht said witheringly. Nudge was offended. "Yeah? Let's see YOU do it." ... "I vill now eat nine Snickers bars," Gazzy said in a perfect, creepy imitation of ter Borcht's voice, "visout bahfing." Iggy rubbed his forehead with one hand. "Well, I have a highly developed sense of irony." Ter Borcht tsked. "You are a liability to your group. I assume you alvays hold on to someone's shirt, yes? Following dem closely?" "Only when I'm trying to steal their dessert" ...Fang pretended to think, gazing up at the ceiling. "Besides my fashion sense? I play a mean harmonica." "I vill now destroy de Snickuhs bahrs!" Gazzy barked.
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James Patterson
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Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.
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Salvador DalΓ­
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Kuwei turned to Jesper. β€œYou should visit me in Ravka. We could learn to use our powers together.” β€œHow about I push you in the canal and we see if you know how to swim?” Wylan said with a very passable imitation of Kaz’s glare. Jesper shrugged. β€œI’ve heard he’s one of the richest men in Ketterdam. I wouldn’t cross him.
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Leigh Bardugo (Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2))
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As much as I live I shall not imitate them or hate myself for being different to them
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Orhan Pamuk (Snow)
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Imitation is suicide.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Congratulations on the new spawn, by the way." "Well," Gem said, "that was better than what Wraith said." She lowered her voice and did an imitation of Wraith. "Way cool about the fuck-trophy.
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Larissa Ione (Ecstasy Unveiled (Demonica, #4))
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There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self Reliance)
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I’ll tell you now. That silence almost beat me. It’s the silence that scares me. It’s the blank page on which I can write my own fears. The spirits of the dead have nothing on it. The dead one tried to show me hell, but it was a pale imitation of the horror I can paint on the darkness in a quiet moment.
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Mark Lawrence (Prince of Thorns (The Broken Empire, #1))
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I thawt I thaw a putty tat.” β€œI did, I did thee a putty tat" Finished with his Tweety Bird imitation, he grinned unpleasantly at me. β€œNow, then, luv, let’s get down to business
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Jeaniene Frost (Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress, #1))
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Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.
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Samuel Johnson (The Rambler)
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Do not repeat after me words that you do not understand. Do not merely put on a mask of my ideas, for it will be an illusion and you will thereby deceive yourself.
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J. Krishnamurti
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He was well aware that of the two of three thousand times he had made love (how many times had he made love in his life?) only two or three were really essential and unforgettable. The rest were mere echoes, imitations, repetitions, or reminiscences.
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Milan Kundera (The Book of Laughter and Forgetting)
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When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.
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Eric Hoffer
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There's a rebel lying deep in my soul. Anytime anybody tells me the trend is such and such, I go the opposite direction. I hate the idea of trends. I hate imitation; I have a reverence for individuality.
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Clint Eastwood (Wild Open Spaces: Why We Love Westerns)
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Very touching. Do you want me to imitate a violin?
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L.J. Smith (The Fury (The Vampire Diaries, #3))
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The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it.
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Adolf Hitler
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Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery - it's the sincerest form of learning.
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George Bernard Shaw
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Paradox though it may seem - and paradoxes are always dangerous things - it is none the less true that Life imitates art far more than Art imitates life.
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Oscar Wilde (The Decay Of Lying)
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Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.
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T.S. Eliot (The Sacred Wood)
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You should not have any special fondness for a particular weapon, or anything else, for that matter. Too much is the same as not enough. Without imitating anyone else, you should have as much weaponry as suits you.
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Miyamoto Musashi (The Book of Five Rings)
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The real sky was enormous overhead, making our mirrors and twinkling stage lights seem ridiculous- Man’s futile attempt to imitate God
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M.L. Rio (If We Were Villains)
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when the imitation of Christ does not mean to live a life like Christ, but to live your life as authentically as Christ lived his, then there are many ways and forms in which a man can be a Christian.
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Henri J.M. Nouwen (The Wounded Healer : Ministry in Contemporary Society)
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Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance: An Excerpt from Collected Essays, First Series)
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If God were our one and only desire we would not be so easily upset when our opinions do not find outside acceptance.
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Thomas Γ  Kempis (The Imitation of Christ)
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Acquiring knowledge is a form of imitation.
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J. Krishnamurti
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You should always be trying to write a poem you are unable to write, a poem you lack the technique, the language, the courage to achieve. Otherwise you're merely imitating yourself, going nowhere, because that's always easiest.
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John Berryman
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A poor original is better than a good imitation.
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Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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The most efficient way of rendering the poor harmless is to teach them to want to imitate the rich.
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Carlos Ruiz ZafΓ³n (The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1))
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The Bhagavad Gitaβ€”that ancient Indian Yogic textβ€”says that it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection. So now I have started living my own life. Imperfect and clumsy as it may look, it is resembling me now, thoroughly.
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Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
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Art only begins where Imitation ends.
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Oscar Wilde (De Profundis)
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An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate.
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François-René de Chateaubriand (The Genius of Christianity or the Spirit and Beauty of the Christian Religion)
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Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.
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Albert Schweitzer
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Kaede: I know this, ungrateful dog. In order to find the sacred jewel shards, Kagome's spirtual power is essential. Yet ye made her upset with your words an sent her running home InuYasha: That was her idea! she chose to go home! She said: "I'm going home! You jerk!" Kaede: InuYasha, that imitation was pathetic. InuYasha: I'm a demon, not a comedian!
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Rumiko Takahashi
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I’m the only authentic Vlad. Everyone else is merely an envious imitation.
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Jeaniene Frost (Once Burned (Night Prince, #1))
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We don't need to shift our responsibilities onto the shoulders of some deified Spiritual Superman, or sit around and wait for Fate to come knocking at the door. We simply need to believe in the power that's within us, and use it. When we do that, and stop imitating others and competing against them, things begin to work for us.
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Benjamin Hoff (The Tao of Pooh)
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Thorne’s voice pitched high in imitation of the queen. β€œThe impostor of my beloved niece is vanquished … Let us put this messiness behind us while we go forward with the coronations … I am a psychotic, power-hungry nut basket and my breath smells really bad under this veil.
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Marissa Meyer (Winter (The Lunar Chronicles, #4))
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You have traveled too fast over false ground; Now your soul has come to take you back. Take refuge in your senses, open up To all the small miracles you rushed through. Become inclined to watch the way of rain When it falls slow and free. Imitate the habit of twilight, Taking time to open the well of color That fostered the brightness of day. Draw alongside the silence of stone Until its calmness can claim you.
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John O'Donohue
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Desire is both imitative (we like what others like) and competitive (we want to take away from others what they have). As children, we wanted to monopolize the attention of a parent, to draw it away from other siblings. This sense of rivalry... makes people compete for the attention.
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Robert Greene (The Art of Seduction)
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Do not be concerned with the faults of other persons. Do not see others' faults with a hateful mind. There is an old saying that if you stop seeing others' faults, then naturally seniors and venerated and juniors are revered. Do not imitate others' faults; just cultivate virtue. Buddha prohibited unwholesome actions, but did not tell us to hate those who practice unwholesome actions.
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Dōgen
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At the Day of Judgement we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done.
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Thomas Γ  Kempis (The Imitation of Christ)
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A mismatched outfit, a slightly defective denture, an exquisite mediocrity of the soul-those are the details that make a woman real, alive. The women you see on posters or in fashion magazines-the ones all the women try to imitate nowadays-how can they be attractive? They have no reality of their own; they're just the sum of a set of abstract rules. They aren't born of human bodies; they hatch ready-made from the computers." ~The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
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Milan Kundera (The Book of Laughter and Forgetting)
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All men desire peace, but very few desire those things that make for peace.
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Thomas Γ  Kempis (The Imitation of Christ)
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The other Max looked at me, and her eyes narrowed. 'They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,' she said snidely. 'So I guess you're really sucking up.' 'Who are you?' I gasped, my eyes wide. 'You're an impostor!' 'No she isn't.' The little creepy one, Angel, turned to look at me. Her arm was still bleeding where Ari had bitten it. 'You are.' I swallowed my anger. Who did she think she was, her and her stupid dog? I gave a concerned smile. 'But Angel,' I said, sincerity dripping from my voice, 'how can you say that? You know who I am.' 'I think I'm Angel,' she said. 'And my dog isn't stupid. You're the stupid one, to think that you could fool us. I can read minds, you idiot.
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James Patterson (School's Outβ€”Forever (Maximum Ride, #2))
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No wonder male religious leaders so often say that humans were born in sinβ€”because we were born to female creatures. Only by obeying the rules of the patriarchy can we be reborn through men. No wonder priests and ministers in skirts sprinkle imitation birth fluid over our heads, give us new names, and promise rebirth into everlasting life.
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Gloria Steinem (The Vagina Monologues)
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Tobias," I say anyway. My hands shake, but not from fear this time– from anger. "Where is he? What are you doing to him?" "I see no reason to provide that information," says Jeanine... I make my voice flat and factual, like hers. "I see no reason to provide that information." I hear a faint snort. Peter is covering his mouth. Jeanine glares at him, and his laughter effortlessly transforms into a coughing fit. "Mockery is childish, Beatrice," she says. "It does not become you." "Mockery is childish, Beatrice," I repeat in my best imitation of her voice. "It does not become you."
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Veronica Roth (Insurgent (Divergent, #2))
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A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver.
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Thomas Γ  Kempis (The Imitation of Christ)
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What did Finnick Odair want?” he asks. I turn and put my lips close to Peeta's and drop my eyelids in imitation of Finnick. β€œHe offered me sugar and wanted to know all my secrets,” I say in my best seductive voice. Peeta laughs. β€œUgh. Not really.” β€œReally,” I say. β€œI'll tell you more when my skin stops crawling.
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Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
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Once you pass a certain age, life becomes nothing more than a process of continual loss. Things that are important to your life begin to slip out of your grasp, one after another, like a come losing teeth. And the only things that come to take their place are worthless imitations. Your physical strength, your hopes, your dreams, your ideals, your convictions, all meaning, or then again, the people you love: one by one, they fade away. Some announce their departure before they leave, while others just disappear all of a sudden without warning one day. And once you lose them you can never get them back. Your search for replacements never goes well. It’s all very painful – as painful as actually being cut with a knife.
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Haruki Murakami (1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3))
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Wherever you go, there you are.
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Thomas Γ  Kempis (The Imitation of Christ)
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The capitalist and consumerist ethics are two sides of the same coin, a merger of two commandments. The supreme commandment of the rich is β€˜Invest!’ The supreme commandment of the rest of us is β€˜Buy!’ The capitalist–consumerist ethic is revolutionary in another respect. Most previous ethical systems presented people with a pretty tough deal. They were promised paradise, but only if they cultivated compassion and tolerance, overcame craving and anger, and restrained their selfish interests. This was too tough for most. The history of ethics is a sad tale of wonderful ideals that nobody can live up to. Most Christians did not imitate Christ, most Buddhists failed to follow Buddha, and most Confucians would have caused Confucius a temper tantrum. In contrast, most people today successfully live up to the capitalist–consumerist ideal. The new ethic promises paradise on condition that the rich remain greedy and spend their time making more money and that the masses give free reign to their cravings and passions and buy more and more. This is the first religion in history whose followers actually do what they are asked to do. How though do we know that we'll really get paradise in return? We've seen it on television.
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Yuval Noah Harari (Χ§Χ™Χ¦Χ•Χ¨ ΧͺΧ•ΧœΧ“Χ•Χͺ האנושוΧͺ)
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If you tell me I'm sensible in addition to normal and wise, I'm going to punch you in the stomach.
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J.D. Robb (Imitation in Death (In Death, #17))
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Jesus has now many lovers of the heavenly kingdom but few bearers of His cross.
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Thomas Γ  Kempis (Imitation Of Christ)
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I sat up and the blankets fell away.I looked down and found I was wearing pokemon pajamas. "Sadie,"I said,"I'm going to kill you." She batted her eyes innocently."But the street merchant gave us a very good deal on those.Walt said they would fit you." Walt raised his hand."Don't blame me,man.I tried to stick up for you." Bes snorted,then did a pretty good imitation of Walt's voice:"At least get the extra-large ones with Pikachu.
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Rick Riordan (The Throne of Fire (The Kane Chronicles, #2))
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The main point of Christianity was this: that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. We can be proud of her beauty, since we have the same father; but she has no authority over us; we have to admire, but not to imitate. This gives to the typically Christian pleasure in this earth a strange touch of lightness that is almost frivolity. Nature was a solemn mother to the worshipers of Isis and Cybele. Nature was a solemn mother to Wordsworth or to Emerson. But Nature is not solemn to Francis of Assisi or to George Herbert. To St. Francis, Nature is a sister, and even a younger sister: a little, dancing sister, to be laughed at as well as loved.
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G.K. Chesterton (Orthodoxy)
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Clearly," Jason said, "you are not doing nothing. You are most definitely doing something. What it looks like you're doing is pouring packets of sugar on Lauren Moffat's head." Shhh," I said. "It's snowing. But only on Lauren." I shook more sugar out of the packets. "'Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter,'" I called softly down to Lauren in my best Jimmy Stewart imitation. "'Merry Christmas, you old building and Loan.'" Jason started cracking up, and I had to hush him as Becca saw my sugar supply running low and hastened to hand me more packets. Stop laughing so loud," I said to Jason. "You'll spoil this beautiful moment for them." I sprinkled more sugar over the side of the balcony. "'Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
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Meg Cabot (How to Be Popular)
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I measure every Grief I meet With narrow, probing, Eyes; I wonder if It weighs like Mine, Or has an Easier size. I wonder if They bore it long, Or did it just begin? I could not tell the Date of Mine, It feels so old a pain. I wonder if it hurts to live, And if They have to try, And whether, could They choose between, It would not be, to die. I note that Some -- gone patient long -- At length, renew their smile. An imitation of a Light That has so little Oil. I wonder if when Years have piled, Some Thousands -- on the Harm Of early hurt -- if such a lapse Could give them any Balm; Or would they go on aching still Through Centuries above, Enlightened to a larger Pain By Contrast with the Love. The Grieved are many, I am told; The reason deeper lies, -- Death is but one and comes but once, And only nails the eyes. There's Grief of Want and Grief of Cold, -- A sort they call "Despair"; There's Banishment from native Eyes, In sight of Native Air. And though I may not guess the kind Correctly, yet to me A piercing Comfort it affords In passing Calvary, To note the fashions of the Cross, And how they're mostly worn, Still fascinated to presume That Some are like My Own.
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Emily Dickinson (I'm Nobody! Who Are You? (Scholastic Classics))
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Everything failed to subdue me. Soon everything seemed dull: another sunrise, the lives of heroes, falling in love, war, the discoveries people made about each other. The only thing that didn't bore me, obviously enough, was how much money Tim Price made, and yet in its obviousness it did. There wasn't a clear, identifiable emotion within me, except for greed and, possibly, total disgust. I had all the characteristics of a human being - flesh, blood, skin, hair - but my depersonalization was so intense, had gone so deep, that the normal ability to feel compassion had been eradicated, the victim of a slow, purposeful erasure. I was simply imitating reality, a rough resemblance of a human being, with only a dim corner of my mind functioning. Something horrible was happening and yet I couldn't figure out why - I couldn't put my finger on it.
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Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho)
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Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, The proper study of mankind is Man. Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise and rudely great: With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side, With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride, He hangs between, in doubt to act or rest; In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast; In doubt his mind or body to prefer; Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err; Alike in ignorance, his reason such, Whether he thinks too little or too much; Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; Still by himself abused or disabused; Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd; The glory, jest, and riddle of the world! Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides, Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides; Instruct the planets in what orbs to run, Correct old time, and regulate the sun; Go, soar with Plato to th’ empyreal sphere, To the first good, first perfect, and first fair; Or tread the mazy round his followers trod, And quitting sense call imitating God; As Eastern priests in giddy circles run, And turn their heads to imitate the sun. Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to ruleβ€” Then drop into thyself, and be a fool!
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Alexander Pope (An Essay on Man)
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To say that straight men are heterosexual is only to say that they engage in sex (fucking exclusively with the other sex, i.e., women). All or almost all of that which pertains to love, most straight men reserve exclusively for other men. The people whom they admire, respect, adore, revere, honor, whom they imitate, idolize, and form profound attachments to, whom they are willing to teach and from whom they are willing to learn, and whose respect, admiration, recognition, honor, reverence and love they desire… those are, overwhelmingly, other men. In their relations with women, what passes for respect is kindness, generosity or paternalism; what passes for honor is removal to the pedestal. From women they want devotion, service and sex. Heterosexual male culture is homoerotic; it is man-loving.
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Marilyn Frye (The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory)
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Roarke: "I'll drop you." Eve: "No, better I catch a cab or take the underground. This guy sees me show up in a hot car with a fancy piece behind the wheel, he's not going to like me." Roarke: "You know how I love being referred. to as your fancy piece." Eve: "Sometimes you're my love muffin. He managed a strangled laugh.She could, at the oddest times, surprise him.
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J.D. Robb (Imitation in Death (In Death, #17))
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He looked at her and tilted his head very slightly in wonder. He had forgotten, as he always forgot, how beautiful she was. Her hair was held away from her face by the ruby and gold headband that crossed her dark brows. Her skin was flawless and so fair as to be translucent. She dressed as always in an imitation of Hephestia, but it was far easier to imagine the impersonal cruelty of the Great Goddess than to see cruelty in the face in the Queen of Attolia. Looking at her, Eugenides smiled. Attolia saw his smile, without any hint of self-effacement or flattery or opportunism, a smile wholly unlike that of any member of her court, and she hit him across the face with her hand. His head rocked on his shoulders. He made no sound but sank to his knees...
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Megan Whalen Turner (The Queen of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #2))
β€œ
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead. In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility: But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage; Then lend the eye a terrible aspect; Let pry through the portage of the head Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it As fearfully as doth a galled rock O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean. Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide, Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit To his full height. On, on, you noblest English. Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof! Fathers that, like so many Alexanders, Have in these parts from morn till even fought And sheathed their swords for lack of argument: Dishonour not your mothers; now attest That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you. Be copy now to men of grosser blood, And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman, Whose limbs were made in England, show us here The mettle of your pasture; let us swear That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not; For there is none of you so mean and base, That hath not noble lustre in your eyes. I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, Straining upon the start. The game's afoot: Follow your spirit, and upon this charge Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!
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William Shakespeare (Henry V)
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As long as you live, you will be subject to change, whether you will it or not - now glad, now sorrowful; now pleased, now displeased; now devout, now undevout; now vigorous, now slothful; now gloomy, now merry. But a wise man who is well taught in spiritual labor stands unshaken in all such things, and heeds little what he feels, or from what side the wind of instability blows.
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Thomas Γ  Kempis (The Imitation of Christ)
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Andrea turned her back to Desandra and rolled her eyes. Raphael grimaced. They both looked scandalized. Dear God, what could she have said to scandalize a bouda... β€œNo, really!” Desandra nodded. β€œOkay, so most guys don’t have a nice ball sack, right? It looks all hairy and wrinkled like some small animal died between their legs, but Gerardo’s is like two plums in a velvet bag...” Derek, who’d been lingering in the doorway, took a careful step to the left behind the wall and disappeared from my view. Kill me, somebody. I raised my hand. β€œHold that thought. I need to borrow Andrea for a minute.” I grabbed her arm and pulled her into the hallway. Behind us Raphael growled, β€œDon’t leave me!” Andrea leaned towards me. β€œPlums.” β€œListen...” Andrea raised her hands, imitating holding plums the size of small coconuts, and moved them up and down.
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Ilona Andrews (Magic Rises (Kate Daniels, #6))
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There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preΓ©stablishcd harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give hint no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance: An Excerpt from Collected Essays, First Series)