The great man, that is, the man most imbued with the spirit of the time, is the impressionable man. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If you would know what nobody knows, read what everybody reads, just one year afterwards. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The chief value of the new fact is to enhance the great and constant fact of life. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Drudgery, calamity, exasperation, want, are instructors in eloquence and wisdom. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
God never jests with us, and will not compromise the end of nature, by permitting any inconsequence in its procession. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
And, in fine, the ancient precept, "Know thyself," and the modern precept, "Study nature," become at last one maxim. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“The soul is superior to its knowledge; wiser than any of its works.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Many times the reading of a book has made the future of a man. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life. Football is four 15-minute quarters. Plus timeouts and commercials. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The senses collect the surface facts of matter... It was sensation; when memory came, it was experience; when mind acted, it was… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The shows of the day, the dewy morning, the rainbow, mountains, orchards in blossom, stars, moonlight, shadows in still water, andthe like,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We live in a system of approximations. Every end is prospective of some other end, which is also temporary; a round and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
By degrees we may come to know the primitive sense of the permanent objects of nature, so that the world shall be… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The difference between the actual and the ideal force of man is happily figured in by the schoolmen, in saying, that the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The wheels and springs of man are all set to the hypothesis of the permanence of nature. We are not built like… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There are many virtues in books, but the essential value is the adding of knowledge to our stock by the record of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Thought and knowledge are natures in which apparatus and pretension avail nothing. Gowns, and pecuniary foundations, though of towns of gold, can… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If we consider what happens in conversation, in reveries, in remorse, in times of passion, in surprises, in the instructions of dreams,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
But the best read naturalist who lends an entire and devout attention to truth, will see that there remains much to learn… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I would have the studies elective. Scholarship is to be created not by compulsion, but by awakening a pure interest in knowledge.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Man is made of the same atoms the world is, he shares the same impressions, predispositions, and destiny. When his mind is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Of lower states, of acts of routine and sense, we can tell somewhat; but the masterpieces of God, the total growths and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The thief steals from himself. The swindler swindles himself. For the real price is knowledge and virtue, whereof wealth and credit are… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
But also the constituency determines the vote of the representative. He is not only representative, but participant. Like can onlybe known by… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our knowledge is the amassed thought and experience of innumerable minds. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“We are students of words: we are shut up in schools, and colleges, and recitation -rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The connection between our knowledge and the abyss of being is still real, and the explication must be not less magnificent. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I like to have a person's knowledge comprehend more than one class of topics, one row of shelves. I like a person… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius calls me. I would write on the lintels of the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In my utter impotence to test the authenticity of the report of my senses, to know whether the impressions they make on… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Each is liable to panic, which is exactly, the terror of ignorance surrendered to the imagination. Knowledge is the encourager, knowledge that… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Go out of the house to see the moon, and 't is mere tinsel; it will not please as when its light… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A mind does not receive truth as a chest receives jewels that are put into it, but as the stomach takes up… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Why covet a knowledge of new facts? Day and night, house and garden, a few books, a few actions, serve us as… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is commonly observed that a sudden wealth, like a prize drawn in a lottery or a large bequest to a poor… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Men are not philosophers, but are rather very foolish children, who, by reason of their partiality, see everything in the most absurd… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The refining influence is the study of art, which is the science of beauty; and I find that every man values every… — 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
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
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
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
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
“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
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
A child reminds us that playtime is an essential part of our daily routine. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
No man can be criticised but by a greater than he. Do not, then, read the reviews. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
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
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 Copy Share
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 Copy Share
