You think me the child of circumstance; I make my circumstance. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Thought is the seed of action; but action is as much its second form as thought is its first.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The soul of God is poured into the world through the thoughts of men. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Heaven walks among us ordinarily muffled in such triple or tenfold disguises that the wisest are deceived and no one suspects the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The colleges, while they provide us with libraries, furnish no professors of books; and I think no chair is so much needed. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Think me not unkind and rude That I walk alone in grove and glen; I go to the god of the wood… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
How much more the seeker of abstract truth, who needs periods of isolation, and rapt concentration, and almost a going out of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I should as soon think of swimming across Charles River, when I wish to go to Boston, as of reading all my… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The learned and the studious of thought have no monopoly of wisdom. Their violence of direction in some degree disqualifies them to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Natural science sharpens the discrimination. There is no false logic in nature. All its properties are permanent: the acids and metals never… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Without looking, then, to those extraordinary social influences which are now acting in precisely this direction, but only at whatis inevitably doing… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Though many painters and sculptors talk glibly of "going in for photography," you will find that very few of them can ever… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Life is in short cycles or periods; we are quickly tired, but we have rapid rallies. A man is spent by his… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men… — 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
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
There is one mind common to all individual men. Every man is an inlet to the same and to all of the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If we suddenly plant our foot, and say, - I will neither eat nor drink nor wear nor touch any food or… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I think that the heroism which at this day would make on us the impression of Epaminondas and Phocion must be that… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
To the young mind every thing is individual, stands by itself. By and by, it finds how to join two things and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The crime which bankrupts men and states is job-work-declining from your main design, to serve a turn here and there. Nothing is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Is it not manifest that our academic institutions should have a wider scope; that they should not be timid and keep the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Some men at the approach of a dispute neigh like horses. Unless there be an argument, they think nothing is doing. Some… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
This whole business of Trade gives me to pause and think, as it constitutes false relations between men; inasmuch as I am… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Fear God, and where you go men shall think they walk in hallowed cathedrals. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
You will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The world exists, as I understand it, to teach the science of liberty. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When a man becomes a conformist, he is sacrificing the richness of independent thinking. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Do not craze yourself with thinking, but go about your business anywhere. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If a man sits down to think, he is immediately asked if he has a headache. — 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
