A man cannot free himself by any self-denying ordinances, neither by water nor potatoes, nor by violent possibilities, by refusing to swear,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Debt, grinding debt, whose iron face the widow, the orphan, and the sons of genius fear and hate; debt, which consumes so… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We cannot overstate our debt to the Past, but the moment has the supreme claim. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We owe to genius always the same debt, of lifting the curtain from the common, and showing us that divinities are sitting… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Wouldst thou shut up the avenues of ill, Pay every debt as if God wrote the bill. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We see young men who owe us a new world, so readily and lavishly they promise, but they never acquit the debt;… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I have been told, that in some public discourses of mine my reverence for the intellect has made me unjustly cold to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Science does not know its debt to imagination. Goethe did not believe that a great naturalist could exist without this faculty. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Poverty demoralizes. A man in debt is so far a slave; and Wall-street thinks it easy for a millionaire to be a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Put God in your debt. Every stroke shall be repaid. The longer the payment is with-held, the better for you; for compound… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Of all debts, men are least willing to pay their taxes; what a satire this is on government. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is always so pleasant to be generous, though very vexatious to pay debts. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our debt to tradition through reading and conversation is so massive, our protest so rare and insignificant-and this commonly on the ground… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Speak as you think, be what you are, pay your debts of all kinds. I prefer to be owned as sound and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our expense is almost all for conformity. It is for cake that we run in debt; 'tis not the intellect, not the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I wish the days to be as centuries, loaded, fragrant. Now we reckon them as bank-days, by some debt which is to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Solvency is maintained by means of a national debt, on the principle, If you will not lend me the money, how can… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is a third silent party to all our bargains. The nature and soul of things takes on itself the guaranty of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
You cannot give anything to a magnanimous person. After you have served him, he at once puts you in debt by his… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The whole of what we know is a system of compensation. Every defect in one manner is made up in another. Every… — 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