Poetry makes its own pertinence, and a single stanza outweighs a book of prose. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The finest poems of the world have been expedients to get bread. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a poem. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A poem is made up of thoughts, each of which filled the whole sky of the poet in its turn. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The poet knows that he speaks adequately, then, only when he speaks somewhat wildly. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The sign and credentials of the poet are that he announces that which no man foretold — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight with a verse given in a happy quotation than in… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nor sequent centuries could hit Orbit and sum of SHAKSPEARE's wit. The men who lived with him became Poets, for the air… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A beautiful woman is a practical poet, taming her savage mate, planting tenderness, hope and eloquence in all whom she approaches. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The experience of each new age requires a new confession, and the world seems always waiting for its poet — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There comes a period of the imagination to each--a later youth--the power of beauty, the power of looks, of poetry. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Murder in the murderer is no such ruinous thought as poets and romancers will have it; it does not unsettle him, or… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“The condition of true naming, on the poet’s part, is his resigning himself to the divine aura which breathes through forms, and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The poet, the painter, the sculptor, the musican, the architect, seek each to concentrate this radiance of the world on one point,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The secret of poetry is never explained,— is always new. We have not got farther than mere wonder at the delicacy of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The poet alone knows astronomy, chemistry, vegetation, and animation, for he does not stop at these facts, but employs them as signs.… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In dreams we are true poets; we create the persons of the drama; we give them appropriate figures faces, costumes; they are… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
Milton says, that the lyric poet may drink wine and live generously, but the epic poet, he who shall sing of the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A lady with whom I was riding in the forest said to me that the woods always seemed to her to wait,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For poetry was all written before time was, and whenever we are so finely organized that we can penetrate into that region… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Shakespeare possesses the power of subordinating nature for the purposes of expression, beyond all poets. His imperial muse tosses the creation like… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“The poet discovers that what men value as substances have a higher value as symbols; that Nature is the immense shadow of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them. It depends on the mood of the man, whether he shall see… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Herein is the explanation of the analogies, which exist in all the arts. They are the re-appearance of one mind, working in… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Nature enhances her beauty, to the eye of loving men, from their belief that the poet is beholding her shows at the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Shakespeare carries us to such a lofty strain of intelligent activity, as to suggest a wealth which beggars his own; and we… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“The poets made all the words and therefore language is the archives of history, and, if we must say it, a sort… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“The poet is the sayer, the namer, and represents beauty. He is a sovereign, and stands on the centre. For the world… — 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