It seems as if nature, in regarding the geologic night behind her, when, in five or six millenniums, she had turned out… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is bad enough that our geniuses cannot do anything useful, but it is worse that no man is fit for society… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If you would learn to write, it is in the street you must learn it. Both for the vehicle and for the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
That which we call character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. It is conceived of as… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book; a personality which, by birth and quality, is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The perception of the comic is a tie of sympathy with other men, a pledge of sanity, and a protection from those… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
...man is an analogist, and studies relations in all objects. He is placed in the center of beings, and a ray of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I suffer whenever I see that common sight of a parent or senior imposing his opinion and way of thinking and being… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I cannot often enough say, that a man is only a relative and representative nature. Each is a hint of the truth,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Man carries the world in his head, the whole astronomy and chemistry suspended in a thought. Because the history of nature is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is some reason to believe that when a man does not write his poetry it escapes by other vents through him,… — 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
When there is sympathy, there needs but one wise man in a company and all are wise,--so, a blockhead makes a blockhead… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The crystal sphere of thought is as concentrical as the geological structure of the globe. As our soils and rocks lie in… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The common experience is, that the man fits himself as well as he can to the customary details of that work or… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When fear enters the heart of a man at hearing the names of candidates and the reading of laws that are proposed,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all things are at risk. It is as when… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We are such lovers of self-reliance, that we excuse in a man many sins, if he will show us a complete satisfaction… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A man is reputed to have thought and eloquence; he cannot, for all that, say a word to his cousin or his… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
More than the diamond Koh-i-noor, which glitters among their crown jewels, they prize the dull pebble which is wiser than a man,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The Gods we worship write their names on our faces; be sure of that. And a man will worship something ... That… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Man begins life helpless. The babe is in paroxysms of fear the moment its nurse leaves it alone, and it comes so… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
No one can read the history of astronomy without perceiving that Copernicus, Newton, Laplace, are not new men, or a new kind… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every really able man, in whatever direction he works - a man of large affairs, an inventor, a statesman, an orator, a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The kingdom of man over nature, which cometh not with observation,--a dominion such as now is beyond his dream of God,--he shall… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A man cannot utter two or three sentences without disclosing to intelligent ears precisely where he stands in life and thought, whether… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity. The inventor did it because it was natural to him, and so in him it… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Poverty demoralizes. A man in debt is so far a slave; and Wall-street thinks it easy for a millionaire to be a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I count him a great man who inhabits a higher sphere of thought, into which other men rise with labor and difficulty;… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
My son, a perfect little boy of five years and three months, had ended his earthly life. You can never sympathize with… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Government has come to be a trade, and is managed solely on commercial principles. A man plunges into politics to make his… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Man is a stream whose source is hidden. Our being is descending into us from we know not whence. The most exact… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The borrowing is often honest enough, and comes of magnanimity and stoutness. A great man quotes bravely and will not draw on… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A seashell should be the crest of England, not only because it represents a power built on the waves, but also the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Freedom is the essence of this faith. It has for its object simply to make men good and wise. Its institutions then… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Whatever events in progress shall disgust men with cities, and infuse into them the passion for country life, and country pleasures, will… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A man makes inferiors his superiors by heat; self control is the rule. Anger is an uncontrollable feeling that betrays what you… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Some men are born to own, and can animate all their possessions. Others cannot: their owning is not graceful; seems to be… — 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
