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If a man will kick a fact out of the window, when he comes back he finds it again in the chimney corner.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Ignoring the truth does not erase its existence; it will always return.

This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects the idea that one cannot simply dismiss or ignore facts and truths; they have a way of resurfacing, regardless of attempts to eliminate them. The metaphor of a fact returning from the chimney corner illustrates that the truth is persistent and will remain a part of reality, no matter how one tries to escape it.

Themes

TruthFactsRealityResurfacingConsequences

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about climate change, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of acknowledging scientific facts.

More from Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
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Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
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Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
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Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
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The world belongs to the energetic.
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Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
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