I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to a valued adviser who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the church. On my saying, What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested–‘But these impulses may be from below, not from above.’ I replied, ‘They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the devil’s child, I will live them from the devil.

I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to a valued adviser who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the church. On my saying, What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested–‘But these impulses may be from below, not from above.’ I replied, ‘They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the devil’s child, I will live them from the devil.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson –

Self-Reliance and Other Essays

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