Don't make a novel to establish a principle of political economy. You will spoil both. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
This book of Montaigne the world has endorsed by translating it into all tongues. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“No book has worth by itself, but by the relation to what you have from many other books, it weighs.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Literature is the effort of man to indemnify himself for the wrongs of his condition. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me. — 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
When I read a good book, I wish my life were three thousand years long. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The colleges, while they provide us with libraries, furnish no professors of books; and I think no chair is so much needed. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Be sure then to read no mean books. Shun the spawn of the press on the gossip of the hour. Do not… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I should as soon think of swimming across Charles River, when I wish to go to Boston, as of reading all my… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Let the reader find that he cannot afford to omit any line of your writing because you you have omitted every word… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader. The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine,… — 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
But the best read naturalist who lends an entire and devout attention to truth, will see that there remains much to learn… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Religious literature has eminent examples, and if we run over our private list of poets, critics, philanthropists and philosophers, we shall find… — 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
“Miss Austen’s novels … seem to me vulgar in tone, sterile in artistic invention, imprisoned in the wretched conventions of English society,… — 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
The book, the college, the school of art, the institution of any kind, stop with some past utterance of genius. . .… — 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
Proverbs, like the sacred books of each nation, are the sanctuary of the intuitions. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our high respect for a well-read man is praise enough for literature. - Ralph Waldo Emerson — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Be lord of a day, through wisdom and justice, and you can put up your history books. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our books approach very slowly the things we most wish to know. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
One must be an inventor to read well. There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We prize books, and they prize them most who are themselves wise. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In the highest civilization the book is still the highest delight. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every book is good to read which sets the reader in a working mood. — 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
What's a book? Everything or nothing. The eye that sees it all. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The love of novels is the preference of sentiment to the senses. — 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
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
