A Frenchman may possibly be clean; an Englishman is conscientiously clean. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Pay no heed to the average photographer's remarks upon "flat" and "weak" negatives. Probably he is flat, weak, stale, and unprofitable; your… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I may say it of our preposterous use of books,--He knew not what to do, and so he read. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Fear, when your friends say to you what you have done well, and say it through; but when they stand with uncertain… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to a valued adviser who was wont to importune… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nature is thoroughly mediate. It is made to serve. It receives the dominion of man as meekly as the ass on which… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A man is but a little thing in the midst of the objects of nature, yet, by the moral quality radiating from… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In dealing with the State, we ought to remember that its institutions are not aboriginal, though they existed before we were born;… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Society is an illusion to the young citizen. It lies before him in rigid repose, with certain names, men, and institutions, rootedlike… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The clergyman who lives in the city may have piety, but he must have taste. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In the moment when you make the least petition to God, though it be but a silent wish that he may approve… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I think it is the best of humanity that goes out to walk. In happy hours, I think all affairs may be… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
You may regret calamities if you can thereby help the sufferer, but if you cannot, mind your own business. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
As much wisdom may be expended on a private economy as on an empire, and as much wisdom may be drawn from… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Pretension may sit still, but cannot act. Pretension never feigned an act of real greatness. Pretension never wrote an Iliad, nordrove back… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The simplicity of the universe is very different from the simplicity of a machine. The simplicity of nature is not that which… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We cannot let our angels go; we do not see that they only go out that archangels may come in. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When we have broken our god of tradition, and ceased from our god of rhetoric, then may God fire the heart with… — 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
