The merit claimed for the Anglican Church is that, if you let it alone, it will let you alone. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is no country in which so absolute a homage is paid to wealth. In America there is a touch of shame… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The merit of those who fill a space in the world's history, who are borne forward, as it were, by the weight… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
But the mark of American merit in painting, in sculpture, in poetry, in fiction, in eloquence, seems to be a certain grace… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We know who is benevolent, by quite other means than the amount of subscriptions to soup-societies. It is only low merits that… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Perpetual modernism is the measure of merit in every work of art. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The silence that accepts merit as the most natural thing in the world is the highest applause. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Criticism is infested with the cant of materialism, which assumes that manual skill and activity is the first merit of all men,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The reverence for the deeds of our ancestors is a treacherous sentiment. Their merit was not to reverence the old, but to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Perpetual modernness is the measure of merit, in every work of art; since the author of it was not misled by anything… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Great causes are never tried on their merits; but the cause is reduced to particulars to suit the size of the partizans,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Bonaparte knew but one merit, and rewarded in one and the same way the good soldier, the good astronomer, the good poet,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Sentimentalists ... adopt whatever merit is in good repute, and almost make it hateful with their praise. The warmer their expressions, the… — 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