Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Yet a man may love a paradox, without losing either his wit or his honesty. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The world is young: the former great men call to us affectionately. We too must write Bibles, to unite again the heavens… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A scholar is a man with his inconvenience, that, when you ask him his opinion of any matter, he must go home… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
As every man is hunted by his own daemon, vexed by his own disease, this checks all his activity. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I find the Englishman to be him of all men who stands firmest in his shoes. They have in themselves what they… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Liberty is slow fruit. It is never cheap; it is made difficult because freedom is the accomplishment and perfectness of man. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I look on that man as happy, who, when there is question of success, looks into his work for a reply. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The scholar may lose himself in schools, in words, and become a pedant; but when he comprehends his duties, he above all… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Manners have been somewhat cynically defined to be a contrivance of wise men to keep fools at a distance. Fashion is shrewd… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In all things I would have the island of a man inviolate. Let us sit apart as the gods, talking from peak… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A man is known by the books he reads, by the company he keeps, by the praise he gives, by his dress,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Science was false by being unpoetical. It assumed to explain a reptile or a mollusk, and isolated it-which is hunting for life… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
He only is a well-made man who has a good determination. And the end of culture is not to destroy this, God… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Consider what you have in the smallest chosen library. A company of the wisest and wittiest men that could be picked out… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every young man is prone to be misled by the suggestions of his own ill-founded ambition which he mistakes for the promptings… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The true thrift is always to spend on the higher plane; to invest and invest, with keener avarice, that he may spend… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Men of extraordinary success, in their honest moments, have always sung, "Not unto us, not unto us." According to the faith of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Eloquence shows the power and possibility of man. There is one of whom we took no note, but on a certain occasion… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Sleep takes off the costume of circumstance, arms us with terrible freedom, so that every will rushes to deed. A skillful man… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For, the sense of being which in calm hours rises, we know not how, in the soul, is not diverse from things,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is rare to find a man who believes in his own thoughts or speaks that which he is created to say.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is one mind common to all individual men. Every man is an inlet to the same and to all of the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Under the dominion of an idea, which possesses the minds of multitudes, as civil freedom, or the religious sentiment, the power ofpersons… — 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