There is no one who does not exaggerate. In conversation, men are encumbered with personality, and talk too much. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Economy does not consist in saving the coal, but in using the time while it burns. — 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
When a man does not write his poetry, it escapes by other vents through him. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If thought makes free, so does the moral sentiment. The mixtures of spiritual chemistry refuse to be analyzed. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It does not hurt weak eyes to look into beautiful eyes never so long. — 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
It does not to dwell on dreams and forget to live, but it is equally foolish to ignore the past – never forget. — 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
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
The public values the invention more than the inventor does. The inventor knows there is much more and better where this came… — 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
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
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
But only that soul can be my friend which I encounter on the line of my own march, that soul to which… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Fashion, though in a strange way, represents all manly virtue. It is virtue gone to seed: it is a kind of posthumous… — 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
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
I believe it is the conviction of the purest men, that the net amount of man and man does not much vary.… — 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
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
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
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
Man is made of the same atoms the world is, he shares the same impressions, predispositions, and destiny. When his mind is… — 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
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
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
The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when… — 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
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
Proportion is almost impossible to human beings. There is no one who does not exaggerate. — 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
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
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
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
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
“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
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
A child reminds us that playtime is an essential part of our daily routine. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
No man can be criticised but by a greater than he. Do not, then, read the reviews. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
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
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 Copy Share
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 Copy Share