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Church Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

35 Church quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

All Church quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson’s page

Emerson’s take on the church isn’t about doctrine so’s about the inner spirit. Across 35 entries you’ll see his characteristic blend of optimism and skepticism, urging readers to look beyond walls to the personal quest for meaning. It’s a concise but insightful look at how his philosophy intersects with organized religion.

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I once heard a preacher who sorely tempted me to go to church no more.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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If I should go out of church whenever I hear a false sentiment, I could never stay there five minutes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The merit claimed for the Anglican Church is that, if you let it alone, it will let you alone.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The multitude of false churches accredits the true religion.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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God builds his temple in the heart on the ruins of churches and religions.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Good churches are not built by bad men; at least, there must be probity and enthusiasm somewhere in the society. These minsters…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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A few years ago, the liberal churches complained that the Calvinistic church denied to them the name of Christian. I think the…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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

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The narrow sectarian cannot read astronomy with impunity. The creeds of his church shrivel like dried leaves at the door of the…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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If man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles, or…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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[Whenever the average intellect of the clergy declines in the balance with the average intellect of the people] the churches will be…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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A man of good sense but of little faith, whose compassion seemed to lead him to church as often as he went…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Go into one of our cool churches, and begin to count the words that might be spared, and in most places the…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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If I should go out of church whenever I hear a false statement I could never stay there five minutes. But why…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken. The whole human family is bathed with an element of love…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The paid wealth which hundreds in the community acquire in trade, or by the incessant expansions of our population and arts, enchants…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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If any mention was made of homicide, madness, adultery, and intolerable tortures, we would let the church-bells ring louder, the church-organ swell…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I cannot find language of sufficient energy to convey my sense of the sacredness of private integrity. All men, all things, the…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to a valued adviser who was wont to importune…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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If I have renounced the search of truth, if I have come into the port of some pretending dogmatism, some new church,…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I know nothing which life has to offer so satisfying as the profound good understanding, which can subsist, after much exchange ofgood…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Some men at the approach of a dispute neigh like horses. Unless there be an argument, they think nothing is doing. Some…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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We ought to be cautious in taking even the best ascertained opinions and practices of the primitive Church for our own. If…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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If you maintain a dead church, contribute to a dead Bible-society, vote with a great party either for the government or against…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The Church seems to totter to its fall, almost all life extinct. On this occasion, any complaisance would be criminal which told…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching. How far off, how cool, how chaste the persons…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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

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How beautiful to have the church always open, so that every tired wayfaring man may come in and be soothed by all…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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When I walk up the piazza of Santa Croce I feel as if it were not a Florentine nor an European church…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“The word miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a false impression; it is a monster. It is not one with the…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Universities are of course hostile to geniuses, which, seeing and using ways of their own, discredit the routine: as churches and monasteries…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I like the church, I like a cowl, I love a prophet of the soul; And on my heart monastic aisles Fall…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The plays of children are nonsense, but very educative nonsense. So it is with the largest and solemnest things, with commerce, government,…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Sport is the bloom and glow of a perfect health. The great will not condescend to take anything seriously; all must be…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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More by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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“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

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The order of things consents to virtue.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Life only avails, not the having lived.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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

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A child reminds us that playtime is an essential part of our daily routine.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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No man can be criticised but by a greater than he. Do not, then, read the reviews.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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

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I am; therefore, I had nothing better to do than to think.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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

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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

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