Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

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The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius; for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, which has no luster as you turn it in your hand, until you come to a particular angle; then it shows deep and beautiful colors.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
To this military attitude of the soul we give the name of Heroism... It is a self-trust which slights the restraints of prudence, in the plenitude of its energy and power to repair the harms it may suffer. The hero is a mind of such balance that no disturbances can shake his will...

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nature abhors the old, and old age seems the only disease; all others run into this one.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
But there is no end to the praise of books, to the value of the library. Who shall estimate their influence on our population where all the millions read and write ? It is the joy of nations that man can communicate all his thoughts, discoveries and virtues to records that may last for centuries.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The bitterest tragic element in life to be derived from an intellectual source is the belief in a brute Fate or Destiny.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Enthusiasm is the leaping lightning, not to be measured by the horse-power of the understanding

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sickness is poor-spirited, and cannot serve anyone; it must husband its resources to live. But health or fullness answers its own ends, and has to spare, runs over, and inundates the neighborhoods and creeks of other men's necessities.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
No one can read the history of astronomy without perceiving that Copernicus, Newton, Laplace, are not new men, or a new kind of men, but that Thales, Anaximenes, Hipparchus, Empodocles, Aristorchus, Pythagorus, Oenipodes, had anticipated them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I can find them, but I seldom use them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
When the Master of the universe has points to carry in his government he impresses his will in the structure of minds.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The evils of popular government appear greater than they are; there is compensation for them in spirit and energy it awakens.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The cup of life is not so shallow
That we have drained the best
That all the wine at once we swallow
And lees make all the rest.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
A man must thank his defects, and stand in some terror of his talents.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
We estimate the wisdom of nations by seeing what they did with their surplus capital.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The day will come when no badge or uniform or star will be worn.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
In science we have to consider two things: power and circumstance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Time dissipates to shining ether the solid angularity of facts.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
We do what we must, and call it by the best names we can.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The man is only half himself, the other half is his expression.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The secret of fortune is joy in our hands. Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide. Him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him because he did not need it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The glory of the farmer is that, in the division of labors, it is his part to create. All trade rests at last on his primitive activity. He stands close to Nature; he obtains from the earth the bread and the meat. The food which was not, he causes to be.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nor mourn the unalterable Days
That Genius goes and Folly stays.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The prayer of the farmer kneeling in his field to weed it, the prayer of the rower kneeling with the stroke of his oar, are true prayers heard throughout nature.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Classics which at home are drowsily read have a strange charm in a country inn, or in the transom of a merchant brig.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
In self-trust all the virtues are comprehended.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
The vanishing volatile froth of the present, which any shadow will alter, any thought blow away, any event annihilate, is every moment converted into the adamantine record of the past.

Ralph Waldo Emerson