Some of the sweetest hours in life, in retrospect will be found to have been spent with books. — 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
Good poetry could not have been otherwise written than it is. The first time you hear it, it sounds rather as if… — 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
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
All ages of belief have been great; all of unbelief have been mean. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I now require this of all pictures, that they domesticate me, not that they dazzle me. Pictures must not be too picturesque.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
They have seen but half the universe who never have been shown the house of pain. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The boxer's ring is the enjoyment of the part of society whose animal nature alone has been developed. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our country, customs, laws, our ambitions, and our notions of fit and fair-all these we never made; we found them ready-made; we… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Everything that is popular, it has been said, deserves the attention of philosophers: and this is for the obvious reason, that although… — 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
The moral sense reappears today with the same morning newness that has been from of old the fountain of beauty and strength.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Throughout the ages there have always been those who have been willing to go beyond the norms and reach for that unknown… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The finest poems of the world have been expedients to get bread. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When life has been well spent, age is a loss of what it can well spare,--muscular strength, organic instincts, gross bulk, and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
What is a man born for but to be a reformer, a remaker of what has been made, a denouncer of lies,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The American who has been confined, in his own country, to the sight of buildings designed after foreign models, is surprised on… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Chiefly the sea-shore has been the point of departure to knowledge, as to commerce. The most advanced nations are always those who… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is, in both cases, that a spiritual life has been imparted to nature; that the solid seeming block of matter has… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Fear is cruel and mean. The political reigns of terror have been reigns of madness and malignity,--a total perversion of opinion;society is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I have been told by persons of experience in matters of taste, that the fashions follow a law of gradation, and are… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The secret is the answer to all that has been, all that is, and all that will ever be. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances: it was somebody's name, or he happened to be there at right time, or… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores their tone. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When a happy person comes into the room, it is as if another candle has been lit. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossil poetry. As the limestone of the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nothing is arbitrary, nothing is insulated in beauty. It depends forever on the necessary and the useful. The plumage of the bird,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It has been the office of art to educate the perception of beauty. We are immersed in beauty but our eyes have… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Manners have been somewhat cynically defined to be a contrivance of wise men to keep fools at a distance. Fashion is shrewd… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
What has been done in the world - the works of genius - cost nothing. There is no painful effort, but it… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
And in cases where profound conviction has been wrought, the eloquent man is he who is no beautiful speaker, but who is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
But I cannot recite, even thus rudely, laws of the intellect, without remembering that lofty and sequestered class of men who have… — 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
