Every mind must know the whole lesson for itself,-must go over the whole ground. What it does not see, what it does… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The Americans have many virtues, but they have not Faith and Hope. I know no two words whose meaning is more lost… — 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
Science does not know its debt to imagination. Goethe did not believe that a great naturalist could exist without this faculty. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our life is not so much threatened as our perception. Ghostlike we glide through nature, and should not know our place again. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Do not require a description of the countries towards which you sail. The description does not describe them to you, and to-… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I do not know what arguments mean in reference to any expression of a thought. I delight in telling what I think;… — 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
There are moods in which we court suffering, in the hope that here, at least, we shall find reality, sharp peaks and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“The world -- this shadow of the soul, or other me, lies wide around. Its attractions are the keys which unlock my… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The true thrift is always to spend on the higher plane; to invest and invest, with keener avarice, that he may spend… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When he has seen, that it is not his, nor any man's, but it is the soul which made the world, and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
But the wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting; that the State must follow,… — 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
But there are higher secrets of culture, which are not for the apprentices, but for proficients. These are lessons only for the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A scholar is a man with his inconvenience, that, when you ask him his opinion of any matter, he must go home… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The world when seen through a little child's eyes, greatly resembles paradise. Happiness is doing with a smile what you have to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Astronomy is a cold, desert science, with all its pompous figures,-depends a little too much on the glass-grinder, too little on the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The world is nothing, the man is all; in yourself is the law of all nature, and you know not yet how… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
What we commonly call man, the eating, drinking, planting, counting man, does not, as we know him, represent himself, but misrepresents himself.… — 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
The delicious faces of children, the beauty of school-girls, "the sweet seriousness of sixteen," the lofty air of well-born, well-bred boys, the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Look sharply after your own thoughts. They come unlooked for, like a new bird seen on your trees, and, if you turn… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I think sometimes could I only have music on my own terms, could I live in a great city, and know where… — 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
There are twenty ways of going to a point, and one is the shortest; but set out at once on one. A… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A right rule for a club would be, Admit no man whose presence excludes any one topic. It requires people who are… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
My companion assumes to know my mood and habit of thought, and we go on from explanation to explanation, until all is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We say that every man is entitled to be valued by his best moment. We measure our friends so. We know, they… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The preamble of thought, the transition through which it passes from the unconscious to the conscious, is action. Only so much do… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The poet alone knows astronomy, chemistry, vegetation, and animation, for he does not stop at these facts, but employs them as signs.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
What is life but the angle of vision? A man is measured by the angle at which he looks at objects. What… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Use makes a better soldier than the most urgent considerations of duty,--familiarity with danger enabling him to estimate the danger. He sees… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The secret of poetry is never explained,— is always new. We have not got farther than mere wonder at the delicacy of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We are never without a pilot. When we know not how to steer, and dare not hoist a sail, we can drift.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I know nothing which life has to offer so satisfying as the profound good understanding, which can subsist, after much exchange ofgood… — 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