But a new danger appears in the excess of influence of the great man. His attractions warp us from our place. We have become underlings and intellectual suicides. Ah! yonder in the horizon is our help; — other great men, new qualities, counterweights and checks on each other. We cloy of the honey of each peculiar greatness. Every hero becomes a bore at last.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet

“Uses of Great Men,” Representative Men Lecture 1, Boston (1845-12-11)
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