The subject is said to have the property of making dull men eloquent. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I think we must get rid of slavery or we must get rid of freedom. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Pretension may sit still, but cannot act. Pretension never feigned an act of real greatness. Pretension never wrote an Iliad, nordrove back… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Slavery it is that makes slavery; freedom, freedom. The slavery of women happened when the men were slaves of kings. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I do not see how a barbarous community and a civilized community can constitute a state. I think we must get rid… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We rail at trade, but the historian of the world will see that it was the principle of liberty; that it settled… — 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
If there be any man who thinks the ruin of a race of men a small matter, compared with the last decoration… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Slavery is no scholar, no improver; it does not love the whistle of the railroad; it does not love the newspaper, the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Give the slave the least elevation of religious sentiment, and he is not slave: you are the slave: he not only in… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It now appears that the negro race is, more than any other, susceptible of rapid civilization. The emancipation is observed, in the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If any mention was made of homicide, madness, adultery, and intolerable tortures, we would let the church-bells ring louder, the church-organ swell… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For all our penny-wisdom, for all our soul-destroying slavery to habit, it is not to be doubted that all men have sublime… — 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
