Writer Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is a tie between men to have read the same book.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Never read a book that is not a year old.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

We expect a great man to be a good reader.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man is known by the books he reads.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is with a good book as it is with good company.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Many times the reading of a book has made the future of a man.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tis the good reader that makes the good book.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Some books leave us free and some books make us free.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the right hands, literature is not resorted to as a consolation, and by the broken and decayed, but as a decalogue.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum of insects.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Books take their place according to their specific gravity as surely as potatoes in a tub.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Two sorts of writers possess genius: those who think, and those who cause others to think.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It is remarkable, the character of the pleasure we derive from the best books.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The crowds and centuries of books are only commentary and elucidation, echoes and weakeners of those few great voices of Time.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are books . . . which rank in our life with parents and lovers and passionate experiences.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

O Day of days when we can read! The reader and the book, either without the other is naught.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

We must not inquire too curiously into the absolute value of literature. Enough that it amuses and exercises us. At least it…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The writer, like a priest, must be exempted from secular labor. His work needs a frolic health; he must be at the…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The good writer seems to be writing about himself, but has his eye always on that thread of the Universe which runs…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The regular course of studies, the years of academical and professional education, have not yielded me better facts than some idle books…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader. The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine,…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

How can he [today's writer] be honored, when he does not honor himself; when he loses himself in the crowd; when he…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let the reader find that he cannot afford to omit any line of your writing because you you have omitted every word…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The three practical rules, then, which I have to offer, are, --/ Never read a book that is not a year old./…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Converse with a mind that is grandly simple, and literature looks like word-catching. The simplest utterances are worthiest to bewritten, yet are…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man is known by the books he reads, by the company he keeps, by the praise he gives, by his dress,…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Men are born to write. The gardener saves every slip, and seed, and peach-stone: his vocation is to be a planter of…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

But there is no end to the praise of books, to the value of the library. Who shall estimate their influence on…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hence, instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm. Hence, the book-learned class, who value books, as such; not as related to…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The use of literature is to afford us a platform whence we may command a view of our present life, a purchase…

— 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…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The virtue of books is to be readable.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

People do not deserve good writing, they are so pleased with bad.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is a greater joy to see the author's author, than himself.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing should be the settlement of dew on the leaf.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

We prize books, and they prize them most who are themselves wise.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“a good reader makes a good book”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

In good writing, words become one with things.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson