If I quake, what matters it what I quake at? Our proper vice takes form in one or another shape, according to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Painting seems to be to the eye what dancing is to the limbs. When that has educated the frame to self-possession, to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
As picture teaches the colouring, so sculpture the anatomy of form. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There are faces so fluid with expression, so flushed and rippled by the play of thought, that we can hardly find what… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
By degrees we may come to know the primitive sense of the permanent objects of nature, so that the world shall be… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Beauty is the moment of transition, as if the form were just ready to flow into other forms. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Manners are the happy ways of doing things; each one a stroke of genius or of love, now repeated and hardened into… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every moment instructs, and every object; for wisdom is infused into every form. It has been poured into us as blood; it… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In the learned journal, in the influential newspaper, I discern no form; only some irresponsible shadow; oftener some monied corporation, or some… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
But the wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting; that the State must follow,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is a mischievous notion that we are come late into nature; that the world was finished a long time ago. As… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Power is what they want, not candy-power to execute their design, power to give legs and feet, form and actuality to their… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us. 'Tis… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Freedom is the essence of this faith. It has for its object simply to make men good and wise. Its institutions then… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
O friend, my bosom said, Through thee alone the sky is arched. Through thee the rose is red; All things through thee… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Old & New put their stamp to everything in Nature. The snowflake that is now falling is marked by both. The present… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
An individual man is a fruit which it cost all the foregoing ages to form and ripen. He is strong, not to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If with love thy heart has burned; If thy love is unreturned; Hide thy grief within thy breast, Though it tear thee… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Behind us, as we go, all things assume pleasing forms, as clouds do far off. Not only things familiar and stale, but… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Society is infected with rude, cynical, restless, and frivolous persons who prey upon the rest, and whom no public opinion concentrated into… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Wise cultivated, genial conversation is the last flower of civilization, and the best result which life has to offer us,--a cup for… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In the Fiji islands, it appears, cannibalism is now familiar. They eat thier own wives and children. We only devour widows' houses,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Eloquence must be grounded on the plainest narrative. Afterwards, it may warm itself until it exhales symbols of every kind and color,… — 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