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Inspiration Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

39 Inspiration quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

All Inspiration quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson’s page

Ralph Waldo Emerson writes about books that inspire when used well and verses that flow from passion. He describes character as an invisible force and says poetry can teach power in just a few words. The quotes celebrate the impact of reading, feeling, and concise expression.

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You need someone who can inspire you to be what you know you can be

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Add energy, inspire hope, and blow the coals into a useful flame...

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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You cannot do a kindness too soon.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Books are for nothing but to inspire

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The world belongs to the energetic.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“The most wonderful inspirations die with their subject, if he has no hand to paint them to the senses.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Poetry teaches the enormous force of a few words, and, in proportion to the inspiration, checks loquacity.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity, is to genius the stern friend

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Character is an invincible force, which acts by presence and without means

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The torpid artist seeks inspiration at any cost, by virtue or by vice, by friend or by fiend, by prayer or by…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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A rush of thoughts is the only conceivable prosperity that can come to us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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To help the young soul, to add energy, inspire hope, and blow the coals into a useful flame; to redeem defeat by…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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

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We must learn the language of facts. The most wonderful inspirations die with their subject, if he has no hand to paint…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting — a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The glory of friendship is not in the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is in…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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It is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The Transcendentalist adopts the whole connection of spiritual doctrine. He believes in miracle, in the perpetual openness of thehuman mind to new…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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And yet--it is not beauty that inspires the deepest passion. Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait. Beauty, without expression,…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Although this garrulity of advising is born with us, I confess that life is rather a subject of wonder, than of didactics.…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I have heard that whoever loves is in no condition old. I have heard that whenever the name of man is spoken,…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Shakespeare carries us to such a lofty strain of intelligent activity, as to suggest a wealth which beggars his own; and we…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Among the multitude of scholars and authors, we feel no hallowing presence; we are sensible of a knack and skill rather than…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Every really able man, in whatever direction he works - a man of large affairs, an inventor, a statesman, an orator, a…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The world still wants its poet-priest, a reconciler, who shall not trifle with Shakspeare the player, nor shall grope in graves with…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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As thinkers, mankind has ever divided into two sects, Materialists and Idealists; the first class founding on experience, the second on consciousness;…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst...They are for nothing but to inspire.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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What is indispensable to inspiration? ...sound sleep and the provocation of a good book or a companion.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The charm of the best courages is that they are inventions, inspirations, flashes of genius.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The man of genius inspires us with a boundless confidence in our own powers.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Poets should be law-givers; that is, the boldest lyric inspiration should not chide and insult, but should announce and lead the civil…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end,…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile...it's the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, Nor the kindly smile nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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he who should inspire and lead his race must be defended from travelling with the souls of other men, from living, breathing,…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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More by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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

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

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

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

“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

The order of things consents to virtue.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life only avails, not the having lived.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

A child reminds us that playtime is an essential part of our daily routine.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

No man can be criticised but by a greater than he. Do not, then, read the reviews.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

I am; therefore, I had nothing better to do than to think.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends, but they are imprisoned by an enchanter in these paper and leathern…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The compensations of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also, after long intervals of time. A fever, a mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a…

Ralph Waldo Emerson