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  ...He stands between the truth and every man's mind, and has almost impressed language, and the primary forms of thought, with his name and seal. I am struck, in reading him, with the extreme modernness of his style and spirit. Here is the germ of that Europe we know so well, in its long history of arts and arms; here are all its traits, already discernible in the mind of Plato,--and in none before him. It has spread itself since into a hundred histories, but has added no new element. This Perpetual modernness is the measure of merit in every work of art.   since the author of it was not misled by anything shortlived or local, but abode by real and abiding traits. How Plato came thus to be Europe, and philosophy, and almost literature, is the problem for us to solve.
This could not have happened, without a sound, sincere, and catholic man, able to honor, at the same time, the ideal, or laws of the mind, and fate, or the order of nature. The first period of a nation, as of an individual, is the period of unconscious strength. Children...   Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Excerpt from Representative Men · This quote is about art · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation.

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