“Ordinarily, every body in society reminds us of somewhat else, or of some other person. Character, reality, reminds you of nothing else; it takes place of the whole creation. The man must be so much, that he must make all circumstances indifferent. Every true man is a cause, a country, and an age; requires infinite spaces and numbers and time fully to accomplish his design; — and posterity seem to follow his steps as a train of clients. A man Caesar is born, and for ages after we have a Roman Empire. Christ is born, and millions of minds so grow and cleave to his genius, that he is confounded with virtue and the possible of man. An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man … and all history resolves itself very easily into the biography of a few stout and earnest persons.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance

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Ralph Waldo Emerson 727

American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803–1882

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K 46
Variant translation: A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.
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