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What is success? To laugh often and much To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends To appreciate beauty To find the best in others To leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child a garden patch or a redeemed social condition To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived That is to have succeeded.

What is success? To laugh often and much To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends To appreciate beauty To find the best in others To leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child a garden patch or a redeemed social condition To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived That is to have succeeded.

Approximate author period: c. 1842 AD · industrial

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Attribution & collection notes
Author or tradition
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Attribution: attributed
Country attributed
Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin.
Historical period
Approximate author period: c. 1842 AD · industrial
author lifetime midpoint (1803–1882)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken.
Recorded source
Contributor-provided quotation collection

Supplied reference C; CSV row 418942; supplied attribution, independently unverified

A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.