Books are the best of things if well used; if abused, among the worst. They are good for nothing but to inspire.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nature is a language and every new fact one learns is a new word; but it is not a language taken to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is true that the discerning intellect of the world is always much in advance of the creative, so that there are… — 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
“My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum of insects. The swallow over my window should interweave that thread… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
History no longer shall be a dull book. It shall walk incarnate in every just and wise man. You shall not tell… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
By degrees we may come to know the primitive sense of the permanent objects of nature, so that the world shall be… — 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
Let us stun and astonish the intruding rabble of men and books and institutions by a simple declaration of the divine fact.… — 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
Be a little careful about your library. Do you foresee what you will do with it? Very little to be sure. But… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
He needs no library, for he has not done thinking; no church, for he is himself a prophet; no statute book, for… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“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
“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
In the great books of India, an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene, consistent, the voice of… — 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
