A friend is Janus-faced: he looks to the past and the future. He is the child of all my foregoing hours, the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is no luck in literary reputation. They who make up the final verdict upon every book are not the partial and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I find nothing in fables more astonishing than my experience in every hour. One moment of a man's life is a fact… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is a relation between the hours of our life and the centuries of time. As the air I breathe is drawn… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There will be an agreement in whatever variety of actions, so they be each honest and natural in their hour. For of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I think it is the best of humanity that goes out to walk. In happy hours, I think all affairs may be… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It must be that when God speaketh, he should communicate, not one thing, but all things; should fill the world with his… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Expediency of literature, reason of literature, lawfulness of writing down a thought, is questioned; much is to say on both sides,and, while… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Man Thinking must not be subdued by his instruments. Books are for the scholar's idle times. When he can read God directly,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For, the sense of being which in calm hours rises, we know not how, in the soul, is not diverse from things,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The cure for false theology is motherwit. Forget your books and traditions, and obey your moral perceptions at this hour. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Eloquence shows the power and possibility of man. There is one of whom we took no note, but on a certain occasion… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A man is reputed to have thought and eloquence; he cannot, for all that, say a word to his cousin or his… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Man is the end of nature; nothing so easily organizes itself in every part of the universe as he; no moss, no… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In different hours, a man represents each of several of his ancestors, as if there were seven or eight of us rolled… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive one. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them. It depends on the mood of the man, whether he shall see… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A mob is a society obodies, voluntarily bereaving themselves oreason, and traversing its work. The mob is man, voluntarily descending to the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Time is indeed the theater and seat of illusions; nothing is so ductile and elastic. The mind stretches an hour to a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In excited conversation we have glimpses of the universe, hints of power native to the soul, far-darting lights and shadows of an… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Shakspeare is the only biographer of Shakspeare; and even he can tell nothing, except to the Shakspeare in us; that is, to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
How silent, how spacious, what room for all, yet without place to insert an atom--in graceful succession, in equal fullness, in balanced… — 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