If you could only carry one sentence from this passage into the rest of your life, which would it be, and what would you have to give up to live by it?

Theme: core_values · card 3/4 · 2026-05-17

I ask primary evidence that you are a man, and refuse this appeal from the man to his actions. I know that for myself it makes no difference whether I do or forbear those actions which are reckoned excellent. I cannot consent to pay for a privilege where I have intrinsic right. Few and mean as my gifts may be, I actually am, and do not need for my own assurance or the assurance of my fellows any secondary testimony.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays - First Series

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