The people know that they need in their representative much more than talent, namely, the power to make his talent trusted. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The evils of popular government appear greater than they are; there is compensation for them in spirit and energy it awakens. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is a certain satisfaction in coming down to the lowest ground of politics, for we get rid of cant and hypocrisy. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The desire of gold is not for gold. It is not the love of much wheat, and wool and household stuff. It… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The antidote to this abuse of formal Government, is, the influence of private character, the growth of the Individual. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous or when they are most luxurious-they are conservatives after dinner. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A bullet had found him, his blood ran out as he cried. No money could save him, so he laid down and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
And so the reliance on Property, including the reliance on governments which protect it, is the want of self-reliance. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Plato says that the punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is, to live under the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The men who carry their points do not need to inquire of their constituents what they should say, but are themselves the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“The world of any moment is the merest appearance. Some great decorum, some fetish of government, some ephemeral trade, or war, or… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The plays of children are nonsense, but very educative nonsense. So it is with the largest and solemnest things, with commerce, government,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aimless; it is not loving; it has no ulterior and divine ends; but… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Conservatism stands on man's confessed limitations; reform on his indisputable infinitude; conservatism on circumstance; liberalism on power; one goes to make an… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The teaching of politics is that the Government, which was set for protection and comfort of all good citizens, becomes the principal… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We shall one day learn to supersede politics by education. What we call our root-and-branch reforms of slavery, war, gambling, intemperance, is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Meantime the education of the general mind never stops. The reveries of the true and simple are prophetic. What the tender poeticyouth… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Although knaves win in every political struggle, although society seems to be delivered over from the hands of one set of criminals… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Wealth brings with it its own checks and balances. The basis of political economy is noninterference. The only safe rule is found… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Hence, the less government we have, the better,--the fewer laws, and the less confided power. The antidote to this abuse of formalGovernment,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The rage for road building is beneficent for America, where vast distance is so main a consideration in our domestic politics andtrade,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The city is always recruited from the country. The men in cities who are the centres of energy, the driving-wheels of trade,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When the Master of the universe has points to carry in his government he impresses his will in the structure of minds. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Of all debts, men are least willing to pay their taxes; what a satire this is on government. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I think the vice of our housekeeping is that it does not hold man sacred. The vice of government, the vice of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The democrat is a young conservative; the conservative is an old democrat. The aristocrat is the democrat ripe, and gone to seed,--because… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Let us make education brave and preventive. Politics is an afterwork, a poor patching. We are always a little late... We shall… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Fear is cruel and mean. The political reigns of terror have been reigns of madness and malignity,--a total perversion of opinion;society is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Senators and presidents have climbed so high with pain enough, not because they think the place specially agreeable, but as an apology… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A man known to us only as a celebrity in politics or in trade, gains largely in our esteem if we discover… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Government has come to be a trade, and is managed solely on commercial principles. A man plunges into politics to make his… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The tendencies of the times favor the idea of self-government, and leave the individual, for all code, to the rewards and penalties… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
No man can quite emancipate himself from his age and country, or produce a model in which the education, the religion, the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Universally, the better gold the worse man. The political economist defies us to show any gold mine country that is traversed by… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The President proclaims war, and those Senators who dissent are not those who know better, but those who can afford to...Democracy becomes… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Personal rights, universally the same, demand a government framed on the ratio of the census: property demands a government framedon the ratio… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well. What satire on government can equal the severity… — 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
