The scholar may lose himself in schools, in words, and become a pedant; but when he comprehends his duties, he above all… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
All the facts of nature are nouns of the intellect, and make the grammar of the eternal language. Every word has a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I like to be beholden to the great metropolitan English speech, the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every word which is used to express a moral or intellectual fact, if traced to its root, is found to be borrowed… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The use of natural history is to give us aid in supernatural history: the use of the outer creation, to give us… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Language is fossil poetry. As the limestone of the continent consists of infinite masses of the shells of animalcules, so language is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The angels are so enamored of the language that is spoken in heaven that they will not distort their lips with the… — 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
Language is a city, to the building of which every human being brought a stone; yet he is no more to be… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I cannot find language of sufficient energy to convey my sense of the sacredness of private integrity. All men, all things, the… — 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
By virtue of this science the poet is the Namer, or Language-maker, naming things sometimes after their appearance, sometimes after their essence,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossil poetry. As the limestone of the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained… — 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
Good as is discourse, silence is better, and shames it. The length of the discourse indicates the distance of thought betwixt the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Life lies behind us as the quarry from whence we get tiles and copestones for the masonry of to-day. This is 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… — 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
