Quote 8 of 40

From Emerson's Essays, by Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you visit your friend, why need you apologize for not having
visited him, and waste his time and deface your own act?  Visit him
now.  Let him feel that the highest love has come to see him, in thee
its lowest organ.  Or why need you torment yourself and friend by
secret self-reproaches that you have not assisted him or complimented
him with gifts and salutations heretofore?  Be a gift and a
benediction.  Shine with real light and not with the borrowed
reflection of gifts.  Common men are apologies for men; they bow the
head, excuse themselves with prolix reasons, and accumulate
appearances because the substance is not.
		-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Spiritual Laws", p. 85

Tags: love reflection apologies benediction spirituallaws secretself ralphwaldoemerson