The first farmer was the first man, and all historic nobility rests on possession and use of land. — 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
We boast our emancipation from many superstitions; but if we have broken any idols, it is through a transfer of idolatry. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I suppose an entire cabinet of shells would be an expression of the whole human mind; a Flora of the whole globe… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Let us affront and reprimand the smooth mediocrity and squalid contentment of the times, and hurl in the face of custom and… — 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
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
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
Emancipation is the demand of civilization. That is a principle; everything else is an intrigue. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“The poets made all the words and therefore language is the archives of history, and, if we must say it, a sort… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We cannot describe the natural history of the soul, but we know that it is divine. All things are known to the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The Times are the masquerade of the eternities; trivial to the dull, tokens of noble and majestic agents to the wise; the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In the history of the individual is always an account of his condition, and he knows himself to be a party to… — 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 reverence for the Scriptures is an element of civilization, for thus has the history of the world been preserved, and is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
America is another name for opportunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of divine providence on behalf of the human… — 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
“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
History is full, down to this day, of the imbecility of kings and governors. They are a class of persons much to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Criticism should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and root-puller, but guiding, instructive, inspiring, a south wind, not an east wind. — 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