Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We prize books, and they prize them most who are themselves wise. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
That book is good Which puts me in a working mood. Unless to Thought be added Will Apollo is an imbecile. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
O Day of days when we can read! The reader and the book, either without the other is naught. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There are books . . . which rank in our life with parents and lovers and passionate experiences. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every word we speak is million-faced or convertible to an indefinite number of applications. If it were not so we could read… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In every man's memory, with the hours when life culminated are usually associated certain books which met his views. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst...They are for nothing but to inspire. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In the highest civilization, the book is still the highest delight. He who has once known its satisfactions is provided with a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Some of the sweetest hours in life, in retrospect will be found to have been spent with books. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
How much we forgive to those who yield us the rare spectacle of heroic manners! We will pardon them the want of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Consider what you have in the smallest chosen library. A company of the wisest and wittiest men that could be picked out… — 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
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 Copy Share Image
“Everybody we know surrounds himself with a fine house, fine books, conservatory, gardens, equipage, and all manner of toys, as screens to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We do not yet trust the unknown powers of thought. Whence came all these tools, inventions, book laws, parties, kingdoms? Out of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I think I have done well, if I have acquired a new word from a good author; and my business with him… — 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
The permanence of all books is fixed by no effort friendly or hostile, but by their own specific gravity, or the intrinsic… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is much better to learn the elements of geology, of botany, or ornithology and astronomy by word of mouth from a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I do not hesitate to read. all good books in translations. What is really best in any book is translatable-any real insight… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Meek young men grow up in colleges and believe it is their duty to accept the views which books have given, and… — 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
“Better that the book should be not quite so good, and the writer better, and not himself a ridiculous contrast to all… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The genius of the Platonists, is intoxicating to the student, yet how few particulars of it can I detach from all their… — 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
Proverbs are the literature of reason, or the statements of absolute truth, without qualification. Like the sacred books of each nation, they… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every burned book or house enlightens the world; every suppressed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is said, no man can write but one book; and if a man have a defect, it is apt to leave… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Society is the stage on which manners are shown; novels are the literature. Novels are the journal or record of manners; and… — 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
I learn immediately from any speaker how much he has already lived, through the poverty or the splendor of his speech. Life… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It happens to us once or twice in a lifetime to be drunk with some book which probably has some extraordinary relative… — 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
What art can paint or gild any object in after life with the glow which nature gives to the first baubles of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book; a personality which, by birth and quality, is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The student is to read history actively and not passively; to esteem his own life the text, and books the commentary. Thus… — 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
