To give money to a sufferer is only a come-off. It is only a postponement of the real payment, a bribe paid… — 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
At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is a capital blunder; as you discover, when another man recites his charities. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I am not engaged to Christianity by decent forms, or saving ordinances; it is not usage, it is not what I do… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For he that feeds men serveth few; He serves all who dares be true. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Is all literature eavesdropping, and all art Chinese imitation? our life a custom, and our body borrowed, like a beggar’s dinner, from… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Why should all virtue work in one and the same way? Why should all give dollars? It is very inconvenient to us… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Men do what is called a good action, as some piece of courage or charity, much as they would pay a fine… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Love should make joy; but our benevolence is unhappy. Our Sunday-schools, and churches, and pauper-societies are yokes to the neck. We pain… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The river knows the way to the sea: Without a pilot it runs and falls, Blessing all lands with its charity. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The worst of charity is that the lives you are asked to preserve are not worth preserving. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Give no bounties: make equal laws: secure life and prosperity and you need not give alms. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is a class of persons to whom by all spiritual affinity i am bought and sold; for them i will go… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Do not tell me of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee,… — 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