“Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Proverbs, like the sacred books of each nation, are the sanctuary of the intuitions. That which the droning world, chained to appearances,… — 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
All writing is by the grace of God. People do not deserve to have good writing, they are so pleased with bad.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The secret of genius is to suffer no fiction to exist for us; to realize all that we know; in the high… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is no luck in literary reputation. They who make up the final verdict upon every book are not the partial and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is a relation between the hours of our life and the centuries of time. As the air I breathe is drawn… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I am sure of this, that by going much alone a man will get more of a noble courage in thought and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There are many virtues in books, but the essential value is the adding of knowledge to our stock by the record of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Only those books come down which deserve to last . All the gilt edges, vellum and morocco, all the presentation copies to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
An imaginative book renders us much more service at first, by stimulating us through its tropes, than afterward, when we arrive atthe… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We over-estimate the conscience of our friend. His goodness seems better than our goodness, his nature finer, his temptations less. Everything that… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
What is indispensable to inspiration? ...sound sleep and the provocation of a good book or a companion. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Conservatism is affluent and openhanded, but there is a cunning juggle in riches. I observe that they take somewhat for everythingthey give.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusion. Every… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Most of the classical citations you shall hear or read in the current journals or speeches were not drawn from the originals,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Poetry makes its own pertinence, and a single stanza outweighs a book of prose. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Man Thinking must not be subdued by his instruments. Books are for the scholar's idle times. When he can read God directly,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
All minds quote. Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The cure for false theology is motherwit. Forget your books and traditions, and obey your moral perceptions at this hour. — 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
