Let us not forget the genial miraculous force we have known to proceed from a book. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Many times the reading of a book has made the future of a man. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Books take their place according to their specific gravity as surely as potatoes in a tub. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum of insects. — 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
Friends should be like books, easy to find when you need them, but seldom used. — 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
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
Be sure then to read no mean books. Shun the spawn of the press on the gossip of the hour. Do not… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
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 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
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 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
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
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 then creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In the first place, all books that get fairly into the vital air of the world were written by the successful class,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have… — 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
“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 Copy Share Image
A collector recently bought at public auction, in London, for one hundred and fifty-seven guineas, an autograph of Shakespeare; but for nothing… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“There is a class whose value I should designate as Favorites: such as Froissart's Chronicles; Southey's Chronicle of the Cid ; Cervantes… — 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
What's a book? Everything or nothing. The eye that sees it all. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The book written against fame and learning has the author's name on the title-page. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our books approach very slowly the things we most wish to know. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Be lord of a day, through wisdom and justice, and you can put up your history books. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In the highest civilization the book is still the highest delight. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I may say it of our preposterous use of books,--He knew not what to do, and so he read. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every book is good to read which sets the reader in a working mood. — 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
