Books Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is a tie between men to have read the same book.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Never read a book that is not a year old.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

We expect a great man to be a good reader.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man is known by the books he reads.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is with a good book as it is with good company.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every novel is a debtor to Homer.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

No book was ever written down by any but itself.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tis the good reader that makes the good book.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum of insects.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Books take their place according to their specific gravity as surely as potatoes in a tub.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

That book is good Which puts me in a working mood. Unless to Thought be added Will Apollo is an imbecile.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It is remarkable, the character of the pleasure we derive from the best books.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are books . . . which rank in our life with parents and lovers and passionate experiences.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

O Day of days when we can read! The reader and the book, either without the other is naught.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friends should be like books, easy to find when you need them, but seldom used.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let us not forget the genial miraculous force we have known to proceed from a book.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests, and mines, and stone quarries; and every…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the right hands, literature is not resorted to as a consolation, and by the broken and decayed, but as a decalogue.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Read proudly--put the duty of being read invariably on the author. If he is not read, whose fault is it? I am…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The cure for false theology is motherwit. Forget your books and traditions, and obey your moral perceptions at this hour.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

How much we forgive to those who yield us the rare spectacle of heroic manners! We will pardon them the want of…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The crowds and centuries of books are only commentary and elucidation, echoes and weakeners of those few great voices of Time.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

We must not inquire too curiously into the absolute value of literature. Enough that it amuses and exercises us. At least it…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the first place, all books that get fairly into the vital air of the world were written by the successful class,…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Converse with a mind that is grandly simple, and literature looks like word-catching. The simplest utterances are worthiest to bewritten, yet are…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

We over-estimate the conscience of our friend. His goodness seems better than our goodness, his nature finer, his temptations less. Everything that…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man is known by the books he reads, by the company he keeps, by the praise he gives, by his dress,…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

We do not yet trust the unknown powers of thought. Whence came all these tools, inventions, book laws, parties, kingdoms? Out of…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Everybody we know surrounds himself with a fine house, fine books, conservatory, gardens, equipage, and all manner of toys, as screens to…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

But, if we explore the literature of Heroism, we shall quickly come to Plutarch, who is its Doctor and historian. To him…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“the best read naturalist who lends an entire and devout attention to truth, will see that there remains much to learn of…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

All writing is by the grace of God. People do not deserve to have good writing, they are so pleased with bad.…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“There is a class whose value I should designate as Favorites: such as Froissart's Chronicles; Southey's Chronicle of the Cid ; Cervantes…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends, but they are imprisoned by an enchanter in these paper…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the learned journal, in the influential newspaper, I discern no form; only some irresponsible shadow; oftener some monied corporation, or some…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

If everything else fails, read the instructions

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Some books leave us free and some books make us free.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson