“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A more secret, sweet, and overpowering beauty appears to man when his heart and mind open to the sentiment of virtue. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
But what is classification but the perceiving that these objects are not chaotic, and are not foreign, but have a law which… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Thoughts come into our minds by avenues which we never left open, and thoughts go out of our minds through avenues which… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We early arrive at the great discovery that there is one mind common to all individual men: that what is individual is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every man finds a sanction for his simplest claims and deeds, in decisions of his own mind, which he calls Truth and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The senses collect the surface facts of matter... It was sensation; when memory came, it was experience; when mind acted, it was… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The hero is a mind of such balance that no disturbances can shake his will, but pleasantly, and, as it were, merrily,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The craft with which the world is made runs also into the mind and character of men. No man is quite sane;… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nature is no sentimentalist, - does not cosset or pamper us. We must see that the world is rough and surly, and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Culture implies all which gives the mind possession of its own powers, as languages to the critic, telescope to the astronomer. Culture… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“The influence of the senses has, in most men, overpowered the mind to the degree that the walls of time and space… — ralph waldo emerson Copy Share Image
Each truth that a writer acquires is a lantern, which he turns full on what facts and thoughts lay already in his… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Undoubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswerable. We must trust the perfection of the creation so far, as to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
You cannot hide any secret. If the artist succor his flagging spirits by opium or wine, his work will characterize itself as… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The word unto the prophet spoken Was writ on tablets yet unbroken: The word by seers or sibyls told, In groves of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Let it suffice that in the light of these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Shall we then judge a country by the majority, or by the minority? By the minority, surely. 'Tis pedantry to estimate nations… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The ancestor of every action is thought; when we understand that we begin to comprehend that our world is governed by thought… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In sculpture did ever anybody call the Apollo a fancy piece? Or say of the Laocoon how it might be made different?… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
All power is of one kind, a sharing of the nature of the world. The mind that is parallel with the laws… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Build, therefore, your own world. As fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in your mind, that will unfold… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
As Arkwright and Whitney were the demi-gods of cotton, so prolific Time will yet bring an inventor to every plant. There is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores their tone. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We hear eagerly every thought and word quoted from an intellectual man. But in his presence our own mind is roused to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Real men don't conform to the beliefs of others, even when society has concluded on what is good and true, but maintain… — 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
The great poet makes us feel our own wealth, and then we think less of his compositions. His best communication to our… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The universal soul is the alone creator of the useful and the beautiful; therefore to make anything useful or beautiful, the individual… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Time is indeed the theater and seat of illusions; nothing is so ductile and elastic. The mind stretches an hour to a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every revolution was first a thought in one man's mind; and when the same thought occurs to another man, it is the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Good poetry could not have been otherwise written than it is. The first time you hear it, it sounds rather as if… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The permanence of all books is fixed by no effort friendly or hostile, but by their own specific gravity, or the intrinsic… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The constructive intellect [genius] produces thoughts, sentences, poems, plans, designs, systems. It is the generation of the mind, the marriage of thought… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Luckily for us, now that steam has narrowed the Atlantic to a strait, the nervous, rocky West is intruding a new and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
How can we speak of the action of the mind under any divisions, as of its knowledge, of its ethics, of its… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A mind might ponder its thought for an epoch, and not gain so much self-knowledge as the passion of love shall teach… — 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