Happy will the house be in which the relationships are formed from character. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Character is always known. Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every great institution is the lengthened shadow of a single man. His character determines the character of the organization. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The sentiment of virtue is a reverence and delight in the presence of certain divine laws. It perceives that this homely game… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The persons who constitute the natural aristocracy, are not found in the actual aristocracy, or, only on its edge; as the chemicalenergy… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For me, commerce is of trivial import; love, faith, truth of character, the aspiration of man, these are sacred; nor can I… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Beauty is the mark God sets on virtue. Every natural action is graceful; every heroic act is also decent, and causes the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Since everything in nature answers to a moral power, if any phenomenon remains brute and dark, it is that the corresponding faculty… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is not what talents or genius a man has, but how he is to his talents, that constitutes friendship and character.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The most Indian thing about the Indian is surely not his moccasins or his calumet, his wampum or his stone hatched, but… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
You cannot hide any secret. If the artist succor his flagging spirits by opium or wine, his work will characterize itself as… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In our Mechanics' Fair, there must be not only bridges, ploughs, carpenter's planes, and baking troughs, but also some few finer instruments,--rain-gauges,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We pass for what we are. Character teaches above our wills. Men imagine that they communicate thier virtue or vice by overt… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The heroic soul does not sell its justice and its nobleness. It does not ask to dine nicely and to sleep warm.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
By fate, not option, frugal Nature gave One scent to hyson and to wall-flower, One sound to pine-groves and to water-falls, One… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Cities force growth and make men talkative and entertaining, but they make them artificial. What possesses interest for us is thenatural of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
That which we call character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. It is conceived of as… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If we must accept fate we are not less compelled to affirm liberty, the significance of the individual, the grandeur of duty,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We know who is benevolent, by quite other means than the amount of subscriptions to soup-societies. It is only low merits that… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast away our… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Who heeds the waste abyss of possibility? The ocean is everywhere the same, but it has no character until seen with the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Some men are born to own, and can animate all their possessions. Others cannot: their owning is not graceful; seems to be… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The moral sense is always supported by the permanent interest of the parties. Else, I know not how, in our world, any… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When we see a special reformer we feel like asking him, What right have you, sir, to your own virtue? Is virtue… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The inquiry leads us to that source, at once the essence of genius, of virtue, and of life, which we call Spontaneity… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is said that when manners are licentious, a revolution is always near: the virtue of woman being the main girth and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Whoever has had the experience of the moral sentiment cannot choose but believe in unlimited power. Each pulse from that heart isan… — 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
The Gods we worship write their names on our faces; be sure of that. And a man will worship something ... That… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Hence, the less government we have, the better,--the fewer laws, and the less confided power. The antidote to this abuse of formalGovernment,… — 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
