Every man beholds his human condition with a degree of melancholy. As a ship aground is battered by the waves, so man,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The writer, like a priest, must be exempted from secular labor. His work needs a frolic health; he must be at the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Necessity does everything well. In our condition of universal dependence, it seems heroic to let the petitioner be the judge of his… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I have heard that whoever loves is in no condition old. I have heard that whenever the name of man is spoken,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Wisdom is like electricity. There is no permanently wise man, but men capable of wisdom, who, being put into certain company, or… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The best bribe which London offers to-day to the imagination, is, that, in such a vast variety of people and conditions, one… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Give the slave the least elevation of religious sentiment, and he is not slave: you are the slave: he not only in… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our condition as men is risky and ticklish enough. One can not be sure of himself and his fortune an hour, but… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
England produces under favorable conditions of ease and culture the finest women in the world. And, as the men are affectionate and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Undoubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswerable. We must trust the perfection of the creation so far, as to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I take this evanescence and lubricity of all objects, which lets them slip through our fingers then when we clutch hardest, to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Man is the end of nature; nothing so easily organizes itself in every part of the universe as he; no moss, no… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In the history of the individual is always an account of his condition, and he knows himself to be a party to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Solitude is impractical, and society fatal. We must keep our head in the one and our hands in the other. The conditions… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In strict science, all persons underlie the same condition of an infinite remoteness. Shall we fear to cool our love by mining… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is the delight of vulgar talent to dazzle and to bind the beholder. But true genius seeks to defend us from… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
All men, in the abstract, are just and good; what hinders them, in the particular, is, the momentary predominance of the finite… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The condition which high friendship demands is ability to do without it. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nature avenges herself speedily on the hard pedantry that would chain her waves. She is no literalist. Every thing must be taken… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I honor health as the first muse, and sleep as the condition of health. Sleep benefits mainly by the sound health it… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Excite the soul, and the weather and the town and your condition in the world all disappear; the world itself loses its… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every man is an infinitely repelling orb, and holds his individual being on that condition. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every man's condition is a solution in hieroglyph to those inquiries he would put. He acts it as life before he apprehends… — 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