The evils of popular government appear greater than they are; there is compensation for them in spirit and energy it awakens. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. To a man laboring under calamity the heat of his own fire hath sadness… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Let us draw a lesson from nature, which always works by short ways. When the fruit is ripe, it falls. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For it is only the finite that has wrought and suffered; the infinite lies stretched in smiling repose. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
You cannot hide any secret. If the artist succor his flagging spirits by opium or wine, his work will characterize itself as… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Nothing is secure but life, transition, the energizing spirit. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The world proceeds from the same spirit as the body of man. It is a remoter and inferior incarnation of God, a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
One more royal trait properly belongs to the poet. I mean his cheerfulness, without which no man can be a poet,--for beauty… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The relations of the soul to the divine spirit are so pure, that it is profane to seek to interpose helps. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Prayer that craves a particular commodity—anything less than all good, is vicious. Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Debt, grinding debt, whose iron face the widow, the orphan, and the sons of genius fear and hate; debt, which consumes so… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a poem, - a thought so passionate and alive that like… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Nature always wears the colors of the spirit. To a man laboring under calamity, the heat of his own fire hath sadness… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
[T]omorrow is a new day. You shall begin it well & serenely, & with too high a spirit to be cumbered with… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Great genial power, one would almost say, consists in not being original at all; in being altogether receptive; in letting the world… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The delicate muses lose their head if their attention is once diverted. Perhaps if you were successful abroad in talking and dealing… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house a world; and beyond its world, a heaven. Know then, that the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The great man, that is, the man most imbued with the spirit of the time, is the impressionable man. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We infer the spirit of the nation in great measure from the language, which is a sort of monument, to which each… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There can never be deep peace between two spirits, never mutual respect, until, in their dialogue, each stands for the whole world. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We may climb into the thin and cold realm of pure geometry and lifeless science, or sink into that of sensation. Between… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
So shall we come to look at the world with new eyes. It shall answer the endless inquiry of the intellect, —… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Spirit, that made those heroes dare To die, and leave their children free, Bid Time and Nature gently spare The shaft we… — 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