The genius is a genius by the first look he casts on any object. Is his eye creative? Does he not rest… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The philanthropists inquire whether Transcendentalism does not mean sloth: they had as lief hear that their friend is dead, as that he… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is easy to live for others, everybody does. I call on you to live for yourself. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
But it is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy something, which does not represent your life… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is so wonderful to our neurologists that a man can see without his eyes, that it does not occur to them… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Ethics and religion differ herein; that the one is the system of human duties commencing from man; the other, from God. Religion… — 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
Nature arms each man with some faculty which enables him to do easily some feat impossible to any other, and thus makes… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
What strength belongs to every plant and animal in nature. The tree or the brook has no duplicity, no pretentiousness, no show.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We are sure that, though we know not how, necessity does comport with liberty, the individual with the world, my polarity with… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A mind does not receive truth as a chest receives jewels that are put into it, but as the stomach takes up… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
But the mark of American merit in painting, in sculpture, in poetry, in fiction, in eloquence, seems to be a certain grace… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide;… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
All stealing is comparative. If you come to absolutes, pray who does not steal. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
On the other side, the conservative party, composed of the most moderate, able, and cultivated part of the population, is timid, and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is contended that those who have been bred at Eton, Harrow, Rugby, and Westminster, that the public sentiment within each of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Men are what their mothers made them. You may as well ask a loom which weaves huckabuck why it does not make… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every mind must know the whole lesson for itself,-must go over the whole ground. What it does not see, what it does… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
What is addressed to us for contemplation does not threaten us, but makes us intellectual beings. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nature is no sentimentalist, - does not cosset or pamper us. We must see that the world is rough and surly, and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Society, to be sure, does not like this very well; it saith, Whoso goes to walk alone, accuses the whole world; he… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Each man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The crime which bankrupts men and states is job-work-declining from your main design, to serve a turn here and there. Nothing is… — 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
