The two terrors that discourage creativity and creative living are fear of public opinion and undue reverence for one's own consistency. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A man known to us only as a celebrity in politics or in trade, gains largely in our esteem if we discover… — 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
Cannot we let [children] be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way? You are trying to make another you. One's enough. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The bitterest tragic element in life to be derived from an intellectual source is the belief in a brute Fate or Destiny. — 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.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Life is unnecessarily long. Moments of insight, of fine personal relation, a smile, a glance,--what ample borrowers of eternity they are! — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We first share the life by which things exist, and afterwards see them as appearances in nature, and forget that we have… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
he who should inspire and lead his race must be defended from travelling with the souls of other men, from living, breathing,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is easy to see that a greater self-reliance must work a revolution in all the offices and relations of men; in… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We are always getting ready to live, but never living... The wave moves onward but the particles of which it is composed… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is the same among the men and women, as among the silent trees; always a referred existence, an absence, never a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The use of literature is to afford us a platform whence we may command a view of our present life, a purchase… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The universe is the externisation of the soul. Wherever the life is, that bursts into appearance around it. Our science is sensual,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no person can sincerely try to help another without helping… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The Gods we worship write their names on our faces; be sure of that. And a man will worship something ... That… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
He decided to give up his large ambition of knowledge and action for any narrow craft or profession, aiming at a much… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The intellectual life may be kept clean and healthful, if man will live the life of nature, and not import into his… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When the act of reflection takes place in the mind, when we look at ourselves in the light of thought, we discover… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In every man's memory, with the hours when life culminated are usually associated certain books which met his views. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The pleasure of life is according to the man who lives it, and not according to the work or the place. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nor knowest thou what argument Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent. All are needed by each one; Nothing is fair… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Life is too short to waste The critic bite or cynic bark, Quarrel, or reprimand; 'Twill soon be dark; Up! mind thine… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
People disparage knowing and the intellectual life, and urge doing. I am content with knowing, if only I could know. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Life is wasted in the necessary preparation of finding what is the true way, and we die just as we enter it. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“It is not the length of life, but the depth of life. He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When a man lives with God, his voice shall be as sweet as the murmur of the brook and rustle of the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The crowning fortune of a man is to be born to some pursuit which finds him employment and happiness, whether it be… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Life is not intellectual or critical, but sturdy. Its chief good is for well-mixed people who can enjoy what they find, without… — 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
This ennui, for which we Saxons had no name,--this word of France, has got a terrific significance. It shortens life, and bereaves… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When friendships are real, they are not glass threads or frost work, but the solidest things we can know. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is no event greater in life than the appearance of new persons about our hearth, except it be the progress of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The advantage in education is always with those children who slip up into life without being objects of notice. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our prejudices are our robbers, they rob us valuable things in life. People only see what they are prepared to see. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Some of the sweetest hours in life, in retrospect will be found to have been spent with books. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
General ideas are essences. They are our gods: they round and ennoble the most partial and sordid way of living. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The poet's habit of living should be set on a key so low that the common influences should delight 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