I cannot find language of sufficient energy to convey my sense of the sacredness of private integrity. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Bare lists of words are found suggestive to an imaginative and excited mind. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
An answer in words is delusive; it is really no answer to the questions you ask. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is no calamity that right words will not begin to redress — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Thought is the bud, language the blossom and action the fruit behind it.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every day brings a ship, Every ship brings a word; Well for those who have no fear, Looking seaward well assured That… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We are thus assisted by natural objects in the expression of particular meanings. But how great a language to convey such pepper-corn… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Poetry teaches the enormous force of a few words, and, in proportion to the inspiration, checks loquacity. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“When the eyes say one thing, and the tongue another, a practical man relies on the language of the first.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Children and savages use only nouns or names of things, which they convert into verbs, and apply to analogous mental acts. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Words are finite organs of the infinite mind. They cannot cover the dimensions of what is in truth. They break, chop, and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When we attempt to define and describe God, both language and thought desert us, and we are as helpless as fools and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Among provocatives, the next best thing to good preaching is bad preaching. I have even more thoughts during or enduring it than… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A man cannot speak but he judges himself. With his will or against his will he draws his portrait to the eye… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Life lies behind us as the quarry from whence we get tiles and copestones for the masonry of to-day. This is the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The preamble of thought, the transition through which it passes from the unconscious to the conscious, is action. Only so much do… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The angels are so enamored of the language that is spoken in heaven that they will not distort their lips with the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Language is fossil poetry. As the limestone of the continent consists of infinite masses of the shells of animalcules, so language is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In conversation the game is, to say something new with old words. And you shall observe a man of the people picking… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The motive of science was the extension of man, on all sides, into Nature, till his hands should touch the stars, his… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The vocabulary of an omniscient man would embrace words and images excluded from polite conversation. What would be base, or even obscene,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Use language what you will, you can never say anything but what you are.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
No one has a prosperity so high and firm that two or three words can't dishearten it. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The word liberty in the mouth of Mr. Webster sounds like the word love in the mouth of a courtesan. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Words so vascular and alive they would bleed if you cut them, words that walked and ran.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is in bad taste," is the most formidable word an Englishman can pronounce. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
An orator or author is never successful till he has learned to make his words smaller than his ideas. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“The etymologist finds the deadest words to have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossil poetry.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The corruption of man is followed by the corruption of language. ... In due time, the fraud is manifest, and words lose… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“For all symbols are fluxional; all language is vehicular and transitive, and is good, as ferries and houses are, for conveyance, not… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
That which we do not believe, we cannot adequately say; even though we may repeat the words ever so often. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Solitary converse with nature; for thence are ejaculated sweet and dreadful words never uttered in libraries. Ah! the spring days, the summer… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every word we speak is million-faced or convertible to an indefinite number of applications. If it were not so we could read… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a… — 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
