Skip to content

Philosophy Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

57 Philosophy quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

All Philosophy quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson’s page

Ralph Waldo Emerson says that reading can be as creative as writing, lighting up the page when the mind works hard. He notes that the East loves infinity while the West enjoys clear boundaries, and he warns that art can be a jealous mistress that leaves a creator with little practical support.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

Knowledge is the only elegance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

We live ruins amid ruins.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

A philosopher must be more than a philosopher.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Infancy conforms to nobody; all conform to it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

The secret in education lies in respecting the student.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

If the East loves infinity, the West delights in boundaries.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Things bring their own philosophy with them, that is, prudence.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated about among men of thought.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Live in the fields, and God will give you lectures on natural philosophy every day.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

It does not need that a poem should be long. Every word was once a poem.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

The philosophy of waiting is sustained by all the oracles of the universe.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Plato is philosophy, and philosophy, Plato,--at once the glory and the shame of mankind, since neither Saxon nor Roman have availed to…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

The true philosopher and the true poet are one, and a beauty, which is truth, and a truth, which is beauty, is…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

No performance is worth loss of geniality. 'Tis a cruel price we pay for certain fancy goods called fine arts and philosophy.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Science always goes abreast with the just elevation of the man, keeping step with religion and metaphysics; or, the state of science…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

“Why should I vapor and play the philosopher, instead of ballasting, the best I can, this dancing balloon?”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Therefore we value the poet. All the argument and all the wisdom is not in the encyclopedia, or the treatise on metaphysics,…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Religious literature has eminent examples, and if we run over our private list of poets, critics, philanthropists and philosophers, we shall find…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul. Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is separate from us, all which…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

The civility of no race can be perfect whilst another race is degraded. It is a doctrine alike of the oldest and…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

The Bhagavad-Gita is an empire of thought and in its philosophical teachings Krishna has all the attributes of the full-fledged montheistic deity…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

“The philosophy of six thousand years has not searched the chambers and magazines of the soul. In its experiments there has always…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Everything that is popular, it has been said, deserves the attention of philosophers: and this is for the obvious reason, that although…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

The poor and the low have their way of expressing the last facts of philosophy as well as you. "Blessed be nothing,"…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

“Napoleon said of Massena, that he was not himself until the battle began to go against him; then, when the dead began…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

The axioms of physics translate the laws of ethics. Thus, "the whole is greater than its part;" "reaction is equal to action;"…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Will is the measure of power. To a great genius there must be a great will. If the thought is not a…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Men are not philosophers, but are rather very foolish children, who, by reason of their partiality, see everything in the most absurd…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

I have been told, that in some public discourses of mine my reverence for the intellect has made me unjustly cold to…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Image

“Thus to him, to this school-boy under the bending dome of day, is suggested, that he and it proceed from one root;…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

We learn geology the morning after the earthquake.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Let none presume to measure the irregularities of Michael Angelo or Socrates by village scales.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Each philosopher, each bard, each actor has only done for me, as by a delegate, what one day I can do for…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Whenever a true theory appears, it will be its own evidence. Its test is, that it will explain all phenomena.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Man is physical as well as metaphysical, a thing of shreds and patches, borrowed unequally from good and bad ancestors, and a…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

There is no way to success in art but to take off your coat, grind paint, and work like a digger on…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

Other authors on Philosophy

More by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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

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

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

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

“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

The order of things consents to virtue.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life only avails, not the having lived.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

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