Noblesse oblige; or, superior advantages bind you to larger generosity. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is always so pleasant to be generous, though very vexatious to pay debts. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
You cannot give anything to a magnanimous person. After you have served him, he at once puts you in debt by his… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The worst of charity is that the lives you are asked to preserve are not worth preserving. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is a capital blunder; as you discover, when another man recites his charities. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must bleed for… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Behind every individual closes organization; before him opens liberty,--the Better, the Best. The first and worse races are dead.The second and imperfect… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Exaggeration is in the course of things. Nature sends no creature, no man into the world, without adding a small excess of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The trail of the serpent reaches into all the lucrative professions and practices of man. Each has its own wrongs. Each finds… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have… — 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
