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Past Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

45 Past quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

All Past quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson’s page

Power ceases in the instant of repose; it lives in the moment when we move from an old state to a new one. Emerson’s quotes urge us to treat the past as a stepping stone, not a weight, and to experiment with fresh ideas. They also remind us that the present moment holds the strongest claim.

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Whatever is old corrupts, and the past turns to snakes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Be not the slave of your own past.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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We do what we must, and call it by the best names.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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We are not free to use today, or to promise tomorrow, because we are already mortgaged to yesterday.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Be not the slave of your own past - plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Power resides in the moment of transition from a past to a new state.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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It does not to dwell on dreams and forget to live, but it is equally foolish to ignore the past – never forget.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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We must set up a strong present tense against all rumors of wrath, past and to come.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Is the parent better than the child into whom he has cast his ripened being? Whence, then, this worship of the past?

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Why should we grope among the dry bones of the past? The sun shines today also.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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This one fact the world hates; that the soul becomes; for that forever degrades the past, turns all riches to poverty, all…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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

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But dare rather to quit the platform, plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, & swim far, so shall you come back…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The Times are the masquerade of the eternities; trivial to the dull, tokens of noble and majestic agents to the wise; the…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Fashion, though in a strange way, represents all manly virtue. It is virtue gone to seed: it is a kind of posthumous…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The days are made on a loom whereof the warp and woof are past and future time. They are majestically dressed, as…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“There is some awe mixed with the joy of our surprise, when this poet, who lived in some past world, two or…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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We can see well into the past; we can guess shrewdly into the future, but that which is rolled up and muffled…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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That which befits us, embosomed in beauty and wonder as we are, is cheerfulness, and courage, and the endeavor to realize our…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“The world -- this shadow of the soul, or other me, lies wide around. Its attractions are the keys which unlock my…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The book, the college, the school of art, the institution of any kind, stop with some past utterance of genius. . .…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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

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Idealism sees the world in God. It beholds the whole circle of persons and things, of actions and events, of country and…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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But lest I should mislead any when I have my own head and obey my whims, let me remind the reader that…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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But man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments the past, or, heedless of…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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It must be that when God speaketh, he should communicate, not one thing, but all things; should fill the world with his…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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It takes a good deal of character to judge a person by his future instead of his past

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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No facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an endless seeker, with no past at my back.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I feel some unwillingness to quit the remembrance of the past. With all the hope of the new I feel that we…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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We cannot overstate our debt to the Past, but the moment has the supreme claim.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Whence, then, this worship of the past? The centuries are conspirators against the sanity and authority of the soul.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The scholar is that man who must take up into himself all the ability of the time, all the contributions of the…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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All persons are puzzles until at last we find in some word or act the key to the man, to the woman;…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Power ceases in the instant of repose; it resides in the moment of transition from a past to a new state, in…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Most people, who have quit smoking, have had at least one unsuccessful try in the past. It is not important how many…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone, scarcely even in acts of pure memory,…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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A friend is Janus-faced: he looks to the past and the future. He is the child of all my foregoing hours, the…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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A man cannot speak but he judges himself. With his will or against his will he draws his portrait to the eye of his…

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Consideration is the soil in which wisdom may be expected to grow, and strength be given to every up-springing plant of duty.

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“There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book…

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The order of things consents to virtue.

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Life only avails, not the having lived.

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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…

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A child reminds us that playtime is an essential part of our daily routine.

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No man can be criticised but by a greater than he. Do not, then, read the reviews.

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Coal lay in ledges under the ground since the Flood, until a laborer with pick and windlass brings it to the surface. We may…

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I am; therefore, I had nothing better to do than to think.

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In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends, but they are imprisoned by an enchanter in these paper and leathern…

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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