All history is a record of the power of minorities, and of minorities of one. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The arts and inventions of each period are only its costume, and do not invigorate men. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is nothing in history to parallel the influence of Jesus Christ. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Every man has a history worth knowing, if he could tell it, or if we could draw it from him.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Let none presume to measure the irregularities of Michael Angelo or Socrates by village scales. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In a cabinet of natural history, we become sensible of a certain occult recognition and sympathy in regard to the most unwieldy… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The cruelest foe is a masked benefactor. The wars which make history so dreary have served the cause of truth and virtue. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“All that we call sacred history attests that the birth of a poet is the principal event in chronology.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The history of persecution is a history of endeavors to cheat nature, to make water run up hill, to twist a rope… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The whole value of history, of biography, is to increase my self-trust, by demonstrating what man can be and do. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories and criticism. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“I have no expectation that any man will read history aright who thinks that what was done in a remote age, by… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
All things are moral. That soul, which within us is a sentiment, outside of us is a law. We feel its inspiration;… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The private life of one man shall be a more illustrious monarchy,--more formidable to its enemy, more sweet and serene in its… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I do not speak with any fondness but the language of coolest history, when I say that Boston commands attention as the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We rail at trade, but the historian of the world will see that it was the principle of liberty; that it settled… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“The faith that stands on authority is not faith. The reliance on authority measures the decline of religion, the withdrawal of the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There are many faculties in man, each of which takes its turn of activity, and that faculty which is paramount in any… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of prophets. He saw with open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
History no longer shall be a dull book. It shall walk incarnate in every just and wise man. You shall not tell… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
All inquiry into antiquity, all curiosity respecting the Pyramids, the excavated cities, Stonehenge, the Ohio Circles, Mexico, Memphis,--is the desire to do… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is long ere we discover how rich we are. Our history, we are sure, is quite tame: we have nothing to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“It is the essence of poetry to spring, like the rainbow daughter of Wonder, from the invisible, to abolish the past, and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Most of the great results of history are brought about by discreditable means. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Be lord of a day, through wisdom and justice, and you can put up your history books. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Wise men read very sharply all of your private history in your look and gait and behavior. — 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
If the whole of history is in one man, it is all to be explained from individual experience. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The first farmer was the first man, and all historic nobility rests on possession and use of land. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Don't set out to teach theism from your natural history... You spoil both. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Emancipation is the demand of civilization. That is a principle; everything else is an intrigue. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
All history is the decline of war, though the slow decline. All that society has yet gained is mitigation; the doctrine of… — 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
