“Your own mind is a sacred enclosure into which nothing harmful can enter except by your permission.”
Documented source
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About this line
The line the internet keeps handing to Emerson is Bennett’s, from The Human Machine, the companion to his better-known 24 Hours a Day. His claim: nothing harmful gets into your head without your say-so — which makes the gate your responsibility. We print it with the attribution corrected. The line is too good to keep giving to the wrong person.
Why we carry this line
Our reminder to guard the gate. And to give credit where it actually belongs.
The design
“Your own mind” sits inside a pair of tall square brackets. Brackets are enclosing punctuation by name, so the mind is literally enclosed, a wall drawn around it. Everything else runs in one quiet voice.
The Bennett lines share an idea: one punctuation mark carries the whole design.
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