We must not inquire too curiously into the absolute value of literature. Enough that it amuses and exercises us. At least it… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Will is the measure of power. To a great genius there must be a great will. If the thought is not a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The first thing a great person does is make us realize the insignificance of circumstance. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Skepticism is unbelief in cause and effect. A man does not see, that, as he eats, so he thinks: as he deals,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It does not need that a poem should be long. Every word was once a poem. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
How can he [today's writer] be honored, when he does not honor himself; when he loses himself in the crowd; when he… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Society is an illusion to the young citizen. It lies before him in rigid repose, with certain names, men, and institutions, rootedlike… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When a man does not write his poetry, it escapes by other vents through him. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Sleep takes off the costume of circumstance, arms us with terrible freedom, so that every will rushes to deed. A skillful man… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The height, the deity of man is to be self-sustained, to need no gift, no foreign force. Society is good when it… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is no good theory of disease which does not at once suggest a cure. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
He cumbers himself never about consequences, about interests; he gives an independent, genuine verdict. You must court him: he does not court… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nature does not cocker us: we are children, not pets: she is not fond: everything is dealt to us without fear or… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Thus inevitably does the universe wear our color, and every object fall successively into the subject itself. The subject exists, the subject… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is greatest to believe and to hope well of the world, because he who does so, quits the world of experience,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In my utter impotence to test the authenticity of the report of my senses, to know whether the impressions they make on… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For no man can write anything who does not think that what he writes is, for the time, the history of the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The heroic soul does not sell its justice and its nobleness. It does not ask to dine nicely and to sleep warm.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
What a man does, that he has. What has he to do with hope or fear? In himself is his might. Let… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
What we commonly call man, the eating, drinking, planting, counting man, does not, as we know him, represent himself, but misrepresents himself.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Nature never wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We say love is blind, and the figure of Cupid is drawn with a bandage around his eyes. Blind - yes, because… — 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