“Two may talk and one may hear, but three cannot take part in a conversation of the most sincere and searching sort.”

1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Friendship

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Ralph Waldo Emerson 727
American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803–1882

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“It was brought home to me that two men may be as sincere, as earnest, as faithful, as uncompromising, and yet hold opinions far asunder as the poles.”

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Context: It was brought home to me that two men may be as sincere, as earnest, as faithful, as uncompromising, and yet hold opinions far asunder as the poles. I have before said that I think the moment of this conviction is the most perilous crisis of our lives; for myself, it threw me at once on my own responsibility, and obliged me to look for myself at what men said, instead of simply accepting all because they said it. I begin to look about me to listen to what had to be said on many sides of the question, and try, as far as I could, to give it all fair hearing.

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