What's a book? Everything or nothing. The eye that sees it all. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The book written against fame and learning has the author's name on the title-page. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The book of nature is the book of fate. She turns the gigantic pages, leaf after leaf never returning one. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I can find them, but… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We are too civil to books. For a few golden sentences we will turn over and actually read a volume of four… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Proverbs are the literature of reason, or the statements of absolute truth, without qualification. Like the sacred books of each nation, they… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every burned book or house enlightens the world; every suppressed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is said, no man can write but one book; and if a man have a defect, it is apt to leave… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst...They are for nothing but to inspire. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In the highest civilization, the book is still the highest delight. He who has once known its satisfactions is provided with a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Slavery is no scholar, no improver; it does not love the whistle of the railroad; it does not love the newspaper, the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Well, the world has a million writers. One would think, then, that good thought would be as familiar as air and water,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
An expense of ends to means is fate;Morganization tyrannizing over character. The menagerie, or forms and powers of the spine, is a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
But there is no end to the praise of books, to the value of the library. Who shall estimate their influence on… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I suppose every old scholar has had the experience of reading something in a book which was significant to him, but which… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
All minds quote. Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
By degrees we may come to know the primitive sense of the permanent objects of nature, so that the world shall be… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
History no longer shall be a dull book. It shall walk incarnate in every just and wise man. You shall not tell… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In every man's memory, with the hours when life culminated are usually associated certain books which met his views. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every word we speak is million-faced or convertible to an indefinite number of applications. If it were not so we could read… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
What is indispensable to inspiration? ...sound sleep and the provocation of a good book or a companion. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Meek young men grow up in colleges and believe it is their duty to accept the views which books have given, and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I do not hesitate to read. all good books in translations. What is really best in any book is translatable-any real insight… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The genius of the Platonists, is intoxicating to the student, yet how few particulars of it can I detach from all their… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Most of the classical citations you shall hear or read in the current journals or speeches were not drawn from the originals,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Better that the book should be not quite so good, and the writer better, and not himself a ridiculous contrast to all… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The permanence of all books is fixed by no effort friendly or hostile, but by their own specific gravity, or the intrinsic… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Some of the sweetest hours in life, in retrospect will be found to have been spent with books. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is much better to learn the elements of geology, of botany, or ornithology and astronomy by word of mouth from a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Be a little careful about your library. Do you foresee what you will do with it? Very little to be sure. But… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Only those books come down which deserve to last . All the gilt edges, vellum and morocco, all the presentation copies to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Let us stun and astonish the intruding rabble of men and books and institutions by a simple declaration of the divine fact.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusion. Every… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum of insects. The swallow over my window should interweave that thread… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
An imaginative book renders us much more service at first, by stimulating us through its tropes, than afterward, when we arrive atthe… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is true that the discerning intellect of the world is always much in advance of the creative, so that there are… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Man Thinking must not be subdued by his instruments. Books are for the scholar's idle times. When he can read God directly,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In the great books of India, an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of… — 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
