The best conversation is rare. Society seems to have agreed to treat fictions as realities, and realities as fictions; and the simple… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In all conversation between two persons, tacit reference is made, as to a third party, to a common nature. That third party… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If we consider what happens in conversation, in reveries, in remorse, in times of passion, in surprises, in the instructions of dreams,… — 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
The law of nature is alternation for evermore. Each electrical state superinduces the opposite. The soul environs itself with friends, that it… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our debt to tradition through reading and conversation is so massive, our protest so rare and insignificant-and this commonly on the ground… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Wise cultivated, genial conversation is the last flower of civilization, and the best result which life has to offer us,--a cup for… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Let us not look east and west for materials of conversation, but rest in presence and unity. A just feeling will fast… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Almost every man we meet requires some civility; requires to be humored; - he has some fame, some talent, some whim of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The secret of success in society is a certain heartiness and sympathy. A man who is not happy in company, cannot find… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
This immediate dependence of language upon nature, this conversion of an outward phenomenon into a type of somewhat in human life,never loses… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A man is reputed to have thought and eloquence; he cannot, for all that, say a word to his cousin or his… — 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
