The cruelest foe is a masked benefactor. The wars which make history so dreary have served the cause of truth and virtue. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Mankind divides itself into two classes,--benefactors and malefactors. The second class is vast; the first a handful. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Talent for talent's sake is a bauble and a show. Talent working with joy in the cause of universal truth lifts the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The Buddhist, who thanks no man, who says "Do not flatter your benefactors," but who, in his conviction that every good deed… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Providence has a wild, rough, incalculable road to its end, and it is of no use to try to whitewash its huge,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If you have a nation of men who have risen to that height of moral cultivation that they will not declare war… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For, when men shall meet as they ought, each a benefactor, a shower of stars, clothed with thoughts, with deeds, with accomplishments,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
This whole business of Trade gives me to pause and think, as it constitutes false relations between men; inasmuch as I am… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The history of mankind interests us only as it exhibits a steady gain of truth and right, in the incessant conflict which it records… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
If we will not interfere with our thought, but will act entirely, or see how the thing stands in God, we know the particular… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
If there is any period one would desire to be born in, is it not the age of Revolution; when the old and the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
A man cannot speak but he judges himself. With his will or against his will he draws his portrait to the eye of his… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
Consideration is the soil in which wisdom may be expected to grow, and strength be given to every up-springing plant of duty. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
“There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
Another success is the post-office, with its educating energy augmented by cheapness and guarded by a certain religious sentimentin mankind; so that the power… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
A child reminds us that playtime is an essential part of our daily routine. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
No man can be criticised but by a greater than he. Do not, then, read the reviews. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
Coal lay in ledges under the ground since the Flood, until a laborer with pick and windlass brings it to the surface. We may… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends, but they are imprisoned by an enchanter in these paper and leathern… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
The compensations of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also, after long intervals of time. A fever, a mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
