Animal Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

First be a good animal.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

A fly is as untamable as a hyena.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The mass are animal, in pupilage, and near chimpanzee.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

When a dog is chasing after you, whistle for him.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Only a biker knows why a dog sticks his head out of a car window.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The smoothest curled courtier in the boudoirs of a palace has an animal nature, rude and aboriginal as a white bear.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is one other reason for dressing well, namely that dogs respect it, and will not attack you in good clothes.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Who can . . . guess how much industry and providence and affection we have caught from the pantomime of brutes?

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

But in every constitution some large degree of animal vigor is necessary as material foundation for the higher qualities of the art.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

We must leave our pets at home, when we go into the street, and meet men on broad grounds of good meaning…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The boxer's ring is the enjoyment of the part of society whose animal nature alone has been developed.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

One single idea may have greater weight than all the men, animals, and machines for a century.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a poem, - a thought so passionate and alive that like…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do you see that kitten chasing so prettily her own tail? If you could look with her eyes, you might see her…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

As the traveler who has lost his way, throws his reins on his horse's neck, and trusts to the instinct of the…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing is arbitrary, nothing is insulated in beauty. It depends forever on the necessary and the useful. The plumage of the bird,…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

For the time of towns is tolled from the world by funereal chimes, but in nature the universal hours are counted by…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The poise of a plant, the bended tree recovering itself from the strong wind, the vital resources of every vegetable and animal,…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Polarity, or action and reaction, we meet in every part of nature; in darkness and light; in heat and cold; in the…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

We fill the hands and nurseries of our children with all manner of dolls, drums and horses, withdrawing their eyes from the…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence;…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The true thrift is always to spend on the higher plane; to invest and invest, with keener avarice, that he may spend…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

As thinkers, mankind has ever divided into two sects, Materialists and Idealists; the first class founding on experience, the second on consciousness;…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The poet alone knows astronomy, chemistry, vegetation, and animation, for he does not stop at these facts, but employs them as signs.…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The intellect searches out the Absolute order of things as they stand in the mind of God, and without the colors of…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

All things are flowing, even those that seem immovable. The adamant is always passing into smoke. The plants imbibe the materialswhich they…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

To wade in marshes and sea margins is the destiny of certain bird, and they are so accurately made for this that…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

To the men of this world, to the animal strength and spirits, to the men of practical power, whilst immersed in it,…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Men are so charmed with valor that they have pleased themselves with being called lions, leopards, eagles and dragons, from the animals…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Perhaps it is the lowest of the qualities of an orator, but it is, on so many occasions, of chief importance,--a certain…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The population of the world is a conditional population; these are not the best, but the best that could live in the…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

What strength belongs to every plant and animal in nature. The tree or the brook has no duplicity, no pretentiousness, no show.…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson