Ralph Waldo Emerson on Gifts

“The gift, to be true, must be the flowing of the giver unto me, correspondent to my flowing unto him.”

“The only gift is a portion of thyself. … Therefore the poet brings his poem; the shepherd, his lamb; the farmer, corn; the miner, a gem; the sailor, coral and shells; the painter, his picture; the girl, a handkerchief of her own sewing."”