Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

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Life is a search after power: and this is an element with which the world is so saturated—there is no chink or crevice in which it is not lodged—that no honest seeking goes unrewarded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The first and last lesson of religion is, 'The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are not seen are eternal.' It puts an affront upon nature.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
But genius looks forward: the eyes of men are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead: man hopes: genius creates.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The thing done avails, and not what is said about it. An original sentence, a step forward, is worth more than all the censures.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Among provocatives, the next best thing to good preaching is bad preaching. I have even more thoughts during or enduring it than at other times.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the beginning of the world, that such who are in the institution wish to get out; and such as are out wish to get in?

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Whoso walketh in solitude,
And inhabiteth the wood,
Choosing light, wave, rock, and bird,
Before the money-loving herd,
Into that forester shall pass
From these companions power and grace.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
All poets have signalized their consciousness of rare moments when they were superior to themselves, -when a light, a freedom, a power came to them which lifted them to performances far better than they could reach at other times.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The soul is not born; it does not die; it was not produced from anyone… Unborn, eternal, it is not slain, though the body is slain.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is very unhappy, but too late to be helped, the discovery we have made, that we exist

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Human character evermore publishes itself. The most fugitive deed and word, the intimated purpose, express character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are always two parties, the party of the Past and the party of the Future: the Establishment and the Movement. At times the resistance is reanimated, the schism runs under the world and appears in Literature, Philosophy, Church, State and social customs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wise men are not wise at all hours, and will speak five times from their taste or their humor, to once from their reason.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sunday is the core of our civilization, dedicated to thought and reverence.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The history of persecution is a history of endeavors to cheat nature, to make water run up hill, to twist a rope of sand.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The artists must be sacrificed to their art. Like bees, they must put their lives into the sting they give.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
In dealing with the State, we ought to remember that its institutions are not aboriginal, though they existed before we were born; that they are not superior to the citizen; that every one of them was once the act of a single man; every law and usage was a man's expedient to meet a particular case; that they all are imitable, all alterable; we may make as good; we may make better.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
All our progress is an unfolding, like the vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge, as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason. It is vain to hurry it. By trusting it to the end it shall ripen into truth, and you shall know why you believe.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
When the man is at home, his standing in society is well known and quietly taken; but when he is abroad, it is problematical, and is dependent on the success of his manners.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
An Englishman who has lost his fortune is said to have died of a broken heart.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Genius is always sufficiently the enemy of genius by over influence.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wherever a man comes, there comes revolution. The old is for slaves.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
A sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Fate is a name for facts not yet passed under the fire of thought, for causes which are unpenetrated.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
If the colleges were better, if they … had the power of imparting valuable thought, creative principles, truths which become powers, thoughts which become talents, — if they could cause that a mind not profound should become profound, — we should all rush to their gates: instead of contriving inducements to draw students, you would need to set police at the gates to keep order in the in-rushing multitude.

Ralph Waldo Emerson