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Politics Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

77 Politics quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

All Politics quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson’s page

Ralph Waldo Emerson describes democracy as a system where bullies are kept in check by editors, and he warns that popular government can seem worse than it truly is. He also notes that politics often follows economic logic, with parties split between conservation and innovation, and that knaves tend to win political fights.

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The rhyme of the poet Modulates the king's affairs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Politics is a deleterious profession, like some poisonous handicrafts.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Governments have their origin in the moral identity of men.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Government has been a fossil: it should be a plant.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The highest end of government is the culture of men.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Man exists for his own sake and not to add a laborer to the State.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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A party is perpetually corrupted by personality.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Morality is the object of government.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Washington, where an insignificant individual may trespass on a nation's time.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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There are men who, by their sympathetic attractions, carry nations with them, and lead the activity of the human race.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short in all management of human affairs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The world of men show like a comedy without laughter: populations, interests, government, history; 't is all toy figures in a toyhouse.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Concentration is the secret of strengths in politics, in war, in trade, in short in all management of human affairs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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In politics and in trade, bruisers and pirates are of better promise than talkers and clerks.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Don't make a novel to establish a principle of political economy. You will spoil both.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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All forms of government symbolize an immortal government, common to all dynasties and independent of numbers, perfect where two men exist, perfect…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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We might as easily reprove the east wind, or the frost, as a political party, whose members, for the most part, could…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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All conservatives are such from personal defects. They have been effiminated by position of nature, born halt and blind, through luxury of…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Society always consists, in greatest part, of young and foolish persons. The old, who have seen through the hypocrisy of the courts…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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If government knew how, I should like to see it check, not multiply, the population. When it reaches its true law of…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The best political economy is the care and culture of men; for, in these crises, all are ruined except such as are…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The two parties which divide the state, the party of Conservation and that of Innovation, are very old, and have disputed the…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Public opinion, I am sorry to say, will bear a great deal of nonsense. There is scarcely any absurdity so gross, whether…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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What a benefit would the American government, not yet relieved of its extreme need, render to itself, and to every city, village…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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We live in a very low state of the world, and pay unwilling tribute to government founded on force. There is not,…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Society is an illusion to the young citizen. It lies before him in rigid repose, with certain names, men, and institutions, rootedlike…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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When we are young, we spend much time and pains in filling our note-books with all definitions of Religion, Love, Poetry, Politics,…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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On the other side, the conservative party, composed of the most moderate, able, and cultivated part of the population, is timid, and…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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But I go with my friend to the shore of our little river, and with one stroke of the paddle, I leave…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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We have feudal governments in a commercial age. It would be but an easy extension of our commercial system, to pay a…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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But the wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting; that the State must follow,…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Democracy becomes a government of bullies tempered by editors.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Surely nobody would be a charlatan, who could afford to be sincere.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Fear, Craft and Avarice Cannot rear a State.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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A good deal of our politics is physiological.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The less government we have the better.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Prosperity is something the businessmen created for politicians to take credit for

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Government exists to defend the weak and the poor and the injured party; the rich and the strong can better take care…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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More by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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

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

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

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

“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

The order of things consents to virtue.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life only avails, not the having lived.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

A child reminds us that playtime is an essential part of our daily routine.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

No man can be criticised but by a greater than he. Do not, then, read the reviews.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

I am; therefore, I had nothing better to do than to think.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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