If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Genius is saying what is in your heart, because it's in everyone's heart. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A man of genius is privileged only as far as he is genius. His dullness is as insupportable as any other dullness. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is true that genius takes its rise out of the mountains of rectitude; that all beauty and power which men covet… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
But it is impossible that the creative power should exclude itself. Into every intelligence there is a door which is never closed,through… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The inquiry leads us to that source, at once the essence of genius, of virtue, and of life, which we call Spontaneity… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The intelligent have a right over the ignorant; namely, the right of instructing them. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
No power of genius has ever yet had the smallest success in explaining existence. The perfect enigma remains. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Genius has infused itself into nature. It indicates itself by a small excess of good, a small balance in brute facts always… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every thought which genius and piety throw into the world alters the world. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The resources of the scholar are proportioned to his confidence in the attributes of the intellect. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is not what talents or genius a man has, but how he is to his talents, that constitutes friendship and character.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Works of the intellect are great only by comparison with each other. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The young man reveres men of genius, because, to speak truly, they are more himself than he is. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is a genius of a nation, which is not to be found in the numerical citizens, but which characterizes the society. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is bad enough that our geniuses cannot do anything useful, but it is worse that no man is fit for society… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The secret of genius is to suffer no fiction to exist for us; to realize all that we know; in the high… — 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