There is, in all great poets, a wisdom of humanity which is superior to any talents they exercise. — 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
“Me too thy nobleness has taught To master my despair; The fountains of my hidden life Are through thy friendship fair.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Men are what their mothers made them. You may as well ask a loom which weaves huckabuck why it does not make… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The true philosopher and the true poet are one, and a beauty, which is truth, and a truth, which is beauty, is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“All that we call sacred history attests that the birth of a poet is the principal event in chronology.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Poetry teaches the enormous force of a few words, and, in proportion to the inspiration, checks loquacity. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
And of poetry, the success is not attained when it lulls and satisfies, but when it astonishes and fires us with new… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
An Eastern poet, Ali Ben Abu Taleb, writes with sad truth, He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“There is some awe mixed with the joy of our surprise, when this poet, who lived in some past world, two or… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In dreams we are true poets; we create the persons of the drama; we give them appropriate figures faces, costumes; they are… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“If we are related, we shall meet. It was a tradition of the ancient world, that no metamorphosis could hide a god… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Great is the art, Great be the manners, of the bard. He shall not his brain encumber With the coil of rhythm… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Language is fossil poetry. As the limestone of the continent consists of infinite masses of the shells of animalcules, so language is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a poem, - a thought so passionate and alive that like… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Why should all virtue work in one and the same way? Why should all give dollars? It is very inconvenient to us… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Well, the world has a million writers. One would think, then, that good thought would be as familiar as air and water,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Genius is always sufficiently the enemy of genius by over influence. The literature of every nation bear me witness. The English dramatic… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is a property in the horizon which no man has, but he whose eyes can integrate all the parts,--that is, the… — 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
After you have pumped your brains for thoughts and verses, there is a better poetry hinted in whistling a tune on your… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is the essence of poetry to spring, like the rainbow daughter of Wonder, from the invisible, to abolish the past, and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For, whom the Muses smile upon, And touch with soft persuasion, His words like a storm-wind can bring Terror and beauty on… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Yet America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Sooner or later that which is now life shall be poetry, and every fair and manly trait shall add a richer strain… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I cannot marry the facts of William Shakespeare to his verse: Other men had led lives in some sort of keeping with… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A man should have a farm or a mechanical craft for his culture. We must have a basis for our higher accomplishments,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If you criticize a fine genius, the odds are that you are out of your reckoning, and, instead of the poet, are… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Conservatism makes no poetry, breathes no prayer, has no invention; it is all memory. Reform has no gratitude, no prudence, no husbandry. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Art is a jealous mistress, and if a man has a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“The etymologist finds the deadest words to have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossil poetry.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There are two classes of poets - the poets by education and practice, these we respect; and poets by nature, these we… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“If a man is at once acquainted with the geometric foundation of things and with their festal splendor, his poetry is exact… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
What the tender and poetic youth dreams to-day, and conjures up with inarticulate speech, is to-morrow the vociferated result of public opinion,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“It could be said that a single person has written all the books in the world such central unity is in them… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
To clothe the fiery thought In simple words succeeds, For still the craft of genius is To mask a king in weeds. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Poet To mask the fiery thought, in simple words succeeds. For still the craft of genius is, To mask a king in… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The piety of the Hebrew prophets purges their grossness. The circumcision is an example of the power of poetry to raise the… — 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
