“In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance
Context: A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson727

American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803–1882

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