I shun father and mother and wife and brother, when my genius calls me. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The miracles of genius always rest on profound convictions which refuse to be analyzed. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The civility of the world has reached that pitch that their more moral genius is becoming indispensable, and the quality of this… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If you criticize a fine genius, the odds are that you are out of your reckoning, and, instead of the poet, are… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The vulgar call good fortune that which really is produced by the calculations of genius. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Art is a jealous mistress, and if a man has a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
So much of our time is spent in preparation, so much in routine, and so much in retrospect, that the amount of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The genius of life is friendly to the noble, and, in the dark, brings them friends from far. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The near explains the far. The drop is a small ocean. A man is related to all nature. This perception of the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is easy to see that what is best written or done by genius in the world, was no man's work but… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The value of a dollar is to buy just things; a dollar goes on increasing in value with all the genius and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Englands genius filled all measureOf heart and soul, of strength and pleasure,Gave to the mind its emperor,And life was larger than before:Nor… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
What has been done in the world - the works of genius - cost nothing. There is no painful effort, but it… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The most attractive class of people are those who are powerful obliquely, and not by the direct stroke: men of genius, but… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Universities are of course hostile to geniuses, which, seeing and using ways of their own, discredit the routine: as churches and monasteries… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Some men at the approach of a dispute neigh like horses. Unless there be an argument, they think nothing is doing. Some… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The city is always recruited from the country. The men in cities who are the centres of energy, the driving-wheels of trade,… — 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
To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
To clothe the fiery thought In simple words succeeds, For still the craft of genius is To mask a king in weeds. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
No power of genius has ever yet had the smallest success in explaining existence. The perfect enigma remains. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Europe has always owed to oriental genius its divine impulses. What these holy bards said, all sane men found agreeable and true. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Poet To mask the fiery thought, in simple words succeeds. For still the craft of genius is, To mask a king in… — 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
I believe in Eternity. I can find Greece, Palestine, Italy, Spain, and the Islands, - the Genius and creative Principle of each… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A man of genius is privileged only as far as he is genius. His dullness is as insupportable as any other dullness. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Genius seems to consist merely in trueness of sight, in using such words as show that the man was an eye-witness, and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The charm of the best courages is that they are inventions, inspirations, flashes of genius. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The genius of the Platonists, is intoxicating to the student, yet how few particulars of it can I detach from all their… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The dogma of the mystic offices of Christ being dropped, and he standing on his genius as a moral teacher, 'tis impossible… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Never mind the ridicule, never mind the defeat: up again, old heart!-it seems to say,-there is victory yet for all justice; and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Talent finds its models, methods, and ends in society, exists for exhibition, and goes to the soul only for power to work.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Colleges, in like manner, have their indispensable office,--to teach elements. But they can only highly serve us, when they aim not to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Misunderstood! It is a right fool's word. Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Genius is always sufficiently the enemy of genius by over influence. The literature of every nation bear me witness. The English dramatic… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Great geniuses have the shortest biographies. Their cousins can tell you nothing about them. They lived in their writings, and sotheir house… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Manners are the happy ways of doing things; each one a stroke of genius or of love, now repeated and hardened into… — 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
