If I made laws for Shakers or a school, I should gazette every Saturday all the words they were wont to use… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Money, which represents the prose of life, and which is hardly spoken of in parlors without an apology, is, in its effects… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well. What satire on government can equal the severity… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Poets should be law-givers; that is, the boldest lyric inspiration should not chide and insult, but should announce and lead the civil… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our country, customs, laws, our ambitions, and our notions of fit and fair-all these we never made; we found them ready-made; we… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
All men, in the abstract, are just and good; what hinders them, in the particular, is, the momentary predominance of the finite… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Hence, the less government we have, the better,--the fewer laws, and the less confided power. The antidote to this abuse of formalGovernment,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A little consideration of what takes place around us every day would show us that a higher law than that of our… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
'Tis a short sight to limit our faith in laws to those of gravity, of chemistry, of botany, and so forth. Those… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If a man knows the law, find out, though he live in a pine shanty, and resort to him. And if a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In dealing with the State, we ought to remember that its institutions are not aboriginal, though they existed before we were born;… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nor has science sufficient humanity, so long as the naturalist overlooks the wonderful congruity which subsists between man and the world; of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
By his machines man can dive and remain under water like a shark; can fly like a hawk in the air; can… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Happy is the house that shelters a friend! It might well be built, like a festal bower or arch, to entertain him… — 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