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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 3/7/2009 Posts: 33,686 Neurons: 100,236 Location: Inside Farlex computers
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 It is not the office of a man to receive gifts ... We wish to be self-sustained. We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 3/26/2013 Posts: 3,522 Neurons: 362,436 Location: Minsk, Minskaya Voblasts', Belarus
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What was a Christmas, wedding, birthday or even Elvis without the gift?
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 3/26/2013 Posts: 3,522 Neurons: 362,436 Location: Minsk, Minskaya Voblasts', Belarus
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We wish to be self-sustained.
That's what teens think, feel and strive for after he/she received some sum of money.
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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 4/27/2013 Posts: 1 Neurons: 3 Location: Austria
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sad but true, I would say ... many people feel humiliated or dwarfed by generosity and do bite the hand that feeds them ... which makes it hard for the givers to stick to their friendly nature sometimes ...
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 3/26/2013 Posts: 3,522 Neurons: 362,436 Location: Minsk, Minskaya Voblasts', Belarus
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Givor-givee relations is the most essential issue of religions and, as such, more difficult to crack than seems at first.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 1/18/2011 Posts: 2,780 Neurons: 8,606
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The quotation is from an Essay by Emerson entitled, "Gifts." Here is the paragraph from which it is taken:
The law of benefits is a difficult channel, which requires careful sailing, or rude boats. It is not the office of a man to receive gifts. How dare you give them? We wish to be self-sustained. We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten. We can receive anything from love, for that is a way of receiving it from ourselves; but not from any one who assumes to bestow. We sometimes hate the meat which we eat, because there seems something of degrading dependence in living by it:—
“Brother, if Jove to thee a present make, Take heed that from his hands thou nothing take.”
(http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/rw-emerson/essays_rwe.pdf)
The entire essay is only four pages. Yet I wonder if anyone will bother to read four pages to better understand Emerson's point. Additionally, is it really necessary to load the forum with multiple posts and emoticons on a single topic just to make your presence known? In the interests of economy and respect wouldn't it be better to make your point clearly, then leave room for others to reply? "The empty drum rings loudest," according to the proverb.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 3/26/2013 Posts: 3,522 Neurons: 362,436 Location: Minsk, Minskaya Voblasts', Belarus
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MTC wrote:"The empty drum rings loudest" ... and longest. Too many letters, sir.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 1/18/2011 Posts: 2,780 Neurons: 8,606
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Emerson argues self reliance is the source of man's dignity. A gift implies the superiority of the giver. He or she is self-reliant and the recipient of the gift is not. Therefore the gift may not be received as a kind benefit, but as an insult. We should think twice before we presume to give, Emerson contends.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 10/17/2012 Posts: 1,711 Neurons: 5,066 Location: Caer Sidi
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"Emerson, Lake & Palmer: a waste of talent & electricity." ~ John Peel
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 1/18/2011 Posts: 2,780 Neurons: 8,606
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Bit of a time warp there, Daveski. Both ELP and Emerson have their detractors: "John Kelman of All About Jazz noted that an 'overbearing sense of self-importance turned ELP from one of the 1970's most exciting new groups into the definition of masturbatory excess and self-aggrandizement in only a few short years.'" Ouch!
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerson,_Lake_%26_Palmer)
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 5/21/2009 Posts: 13,057 Neurons: 63,022
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I saw them in Manchester once. I had a headache for a month.
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 Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 4/12/2010 Posts: 2,420 Neurons: 12,277 Location: Virgil, Illinois, United States
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I saw Manchester once. I had an unmentionable affliction for two months.
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