Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
The highest compact we can make with our fellow is -
"Let there be truth between us two forevermore."
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Behavior." The Conduct of Life, Ticknor and Fields, 1860, p. 176.
This view almost got him killed. It was customary to swear loyalty to the government and those that would not were perceived to be traitors. The logic was that Christians feared for their souls more so than their lives so would not swear falsely. If there was no swearing, how was loyalty to be determined?
Often invoked by religious persons in courts as a justification for not swearing on a Bible and in opposition to loyalty or other oath requirements.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.
