“Only an inventor knows how to borrow, and every man is or should be an inventor. We must not tamper with the organic motion of the soul.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Quotation and Originality
Context: We cannot overstate our debt to the Past, but the moment has the supreme claim. The Past is for us; but the sole terms on which it can become ours are its subordination to the Present. Only an inventor knows how to borrow, and every man is or should be an inventor. We must not tamper with the organic motion of the soul.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson 727

American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803–1882

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