The religions of the world are the ejaculations of a few imaginative men. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The sign and credentials of the poet are that he announces that which no man foretold — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Man exists for his own sake and not to add a laborer to the State. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Sanity is very rare; every man almost and every woman has a dash of madness. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Great men are more distinguished by range and extent than by originality. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The wise man always throws himself on the side of his assailants. It is more his interest than it is theirs to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Not in nature but in man is all the beauty and worth he sees. The world is very empty, and is indebted… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The great man, that is, the man most imbued with the spirit of the time, is the impressionable man. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
You have a place to live in this world which no other man can occupy; hence no competitors. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A man is a beggar who only lives to the useful, and, however he may serve as a pin or rivet in… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The height, the deity of man is to be self-sustained, to need no gift, no foreign force. Society is good when it… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Is not prayer a study of truth, a sally of the soul into the unfound infinite? No man ever prayed heartily without… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
After thirty, a man wakes up sad every morning, excepting perhaps five or six, until the day of his death. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For all men live by truth, and stand in need of expression. In love, in art, in avarice, in politics, in labor,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Men grind and grind in the mill of a truism, and nothing comes out but what was put in. But the moment… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Very few of our race can be said to be yet finished men. We still carry sticking to us some remains of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
As men get on in life, they acquire a love for sincerity, and somewhat less solicitude to be lulled or amused. In… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I know nothing which life has to offer so satisfying as the profound good understanding, which can subsist, after much exchange ofgood… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Man is priest, and scholar, and statesman, and producer, and soldier. In the divided or social state these functions are parcelled out… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I do not know what arguments mean in reference to any expression of a thought. I delight in telling what I think;… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In this distribution of functions, the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right state, he is, Man Thinking. In the degenerate… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If you maintain a dead church, contribute to a dead Bible-society, vote with a great party either for the government or against… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The book, the college, the school of art, the institution of any kind, stop with some past utterance of genius. . .… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I would have the studies elective. Scholarship is to be created not by compulsion, but by awakening a pure interest in knowledge.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Pride can go without domestics, without fine clothes, can live in a house with two rooms, can eat potato, purslain, beans, lyed… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Criticism is infested with the cant of materialism, which assumes that manual skill and activity is the first merit of all men,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Let a man learn to look for the permanent in the mutable and fleeting; let him learn to bear the disappearance of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The purpose of life seems to be to acquaint a man with himself and whatever science or art or course of action… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is the delight of vulgar talent to dazzle and to bind the beholder. But true genius seeks to defend us from… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
One of our statesmen said, "The curse of this country is eloquent men." — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Friendship requires more time than poor busy men can usually command. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When a man does not write his poetry, it escapes by other vents through him. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There are two laws discreteNot reconciled,Law for man, and law for thing. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For he that feeds men serveth few; He serves all who dares be true. — 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