Only by obedience to his genius; only by the freest activity in the way constitutional to him, does an angel seem to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every mind has a new compass, a new direction of its own, differencing its genius and aim from every other mind.--We call… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is easy to carp at colleges, and the college, if he will wait for it, will have its own turn. Genius… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nothing will supply the want of sunshine to peaches, and, to make knowledge valuable, you must have the cheerfulness of wisdom. Whenever… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We owe to genius always the same debt, of lifting the curtain from the common, and showing us that divinities are sitting… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Luckily for us, now that steam has narrowed the Atlantic to a strait, the nervous, rocky West is intruding a new and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There are geniuses in trade as well as in war, or the state, or letters; and the reason why this or that… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It seems as if nature, in regarding the geologic night behind her, when, in five or six millenniums, she had turned out… — 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
It is bad enough that our geniuses cannot do anything useful, but it is worse that no man is fit for society… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We are as much informed of a writer's genius by what he selects as by what he originates. We read the quotation… — 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 constructive intellect [genius] produces thoughts, sentences, poems, plans, designs, systems. It is the generation of the mind, the marriage of thought… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Debt, grinding debt, whose iron face the widow, the orphan, and the sons of genius fear and hate; debt, which consumes so… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The enthusiast always finds the master, the masters, whom he seeks. Always genius seeks genius, desires nothing so much as to be… — 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