Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for his competitors, for it is that which all are practising… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul. Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is separate from us, all which… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It never was in the power of any man or any community to call the arts into being. They come to serve… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I now require this of all pictures, that they domesticate me, not that they dazzle me. Pictures must not be too picturesque.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The arts and inventions of each period are only its costume, and do not invigorate men. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“In art the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“One man thinks justice consists in paying debts, and has no measure in his abhorrence of another who is very remiss in… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our country, customs, laws, our ambitions, and our notions of fit and fair-all these we never made; we found them ready-made; we… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Miss Austen’s novels … seem to me vulgar in tone, sterile in artistic invention, imprisoned in the wretched conventions of English society,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Nature enhances her beauty, to the eye of loving men, from their belief that the poet is beholding her shows at the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I have heard that stiff people lose something of their awkwardness under high ceilings, and in spacious halls. I think, sculptureand painting… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
An artist spends himself like the crayon in his hand, till he is all gone. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Those who are esteemed umpires of taste, are often persons who have acquired some knowledge of admired pictures or sculptures, and have… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Art is not to be found by touring to Egypt, China, or Peru; if you cannot find it at your own door,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. Society acquires new arts, and loses… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For all men live by truth, and stand in need of expression. In love, in art, in avarice, in politics, in labor,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not. The… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Good bye, proud world! I'm going home; Thou art not my friend, and I'm not thine — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
A child reminds us that playtime is an essential part of our daily routine. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
No man can be criticised but by a greater than he. Do not, then, read the reviews. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
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 Image
