The State must follow, and not lead, the character and progress of the citizen. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Vivacity, leadership, must be had, and we are not allowed to be nice in choosing. We must fetch the pump with dirty… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If you want to be great and successful, choose people who are great and successful and walk side by side with them. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Divine persons are character born, or, to borrow a phrase from Napoleon, they are victory organized. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Those who have ruled human destinies, like planets, for thousands of years, were not handsome men. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When a natural king becomes a titular king, every body is pleased and satisfied. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
History is full, down to this day, of the imbecility of kings and governors. They are a class of persons much to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Society gains nothing whilst a man, not himself renovated, attempts to renovate things around him; he has become tediously good insome particular… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If the aristocrat is only valid in fashionable circles, and not with truckmen, he will never be a leader in fashion; and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Where is he who seeing a thousand men useless and unhappy, and making the whole region forlorn by their inaction, and conscious… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In every company, there is not only the active and passive sex, but, in both men and women, a deeper and more… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Out of love and hatred, out of earnings and borrowings and leadings and losses; out of sickness and pain; out of wooing… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If the king is in the palace, nobody looks at the walls. It is when he is gone, and the house is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Who shall set a limit to the influence of a human being? There are men, who, by their sympathetic attractions, carry nations… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
What is man born for but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man has made? A renouncer of lies; a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nature never rhymes her children, nor makes two men alike. When we see a great man, we fancy a resemblance to some… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We have feudal governments in a commercial age. It would be but an easy extension of our commercial system, to pay a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The superstition respecting power and office is going to the ground. The stream of human affairs flows its own way, and is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
So in accepting the leading of the sentiments, it is not what we believe concerning the immortality of the soul, or the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Fashion understands itself; good-breeding and personal superiority of whatever country readily fraternize with those of every other. The chiefs of savage tribes… — 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
