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Spirit Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

65 Spirit quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

All Spirit quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson’s page

Ralph Waldo Emerson writes that nature shows the spirit’s colors and that life is always changing. He says governments may seem worse than they are, but the spirit inside us can stay calm. He also notes that poets need cheerfulness and that the soul’s link to a divine spirit is pure.

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Nature is made to conspire with spirit to emancipate us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The foundations of a person are not in matter but in spirit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Nature is the symbol of Spirit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Men over forty are no judges of a book written in a new spirit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The great man, that is, the man most imbued with the spirit of the time, is the impressionable man.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The relations of the soul to the divine spirit are so pure, that it is profane to seek to interpose helps.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Yet time and space are but inverse measures of the force of the soul. The spirit sports with time.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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When the spirit is not master of the world, then it is its dupe.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Whatever we think and say is wonderfully better for our spirits and trust in another mouth.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Every spirit makes its house, and we can give a shrewd guess from the house to the inhabitant.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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

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Can rules or tutors educate The semigod whom we await? He must be musical, Tremulous, impressional, Alive to gentle influence Of landscape…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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

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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

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I am not so foolish as to declaim against forms. Forms are as essential as bodies; but to exalt particular forms, to…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aimless; it is not loving; it has no ulterior and divine ends; but…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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[T]omorrow is a new day. You shall begin it well & serenely, & with too high a spirit to be cumbered with…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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We do not want actions, but men; not a chemical drop of water, but rain; the spirit that sheds and showers actions,…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Dear to us are those who love us... but dearer are those who reject us as unworthy, for they add another life;…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the…

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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Physical force has no value, where there is nothing else. Snow in snow-banks, fire in volcanoes and solfataras is cheap. The luxury…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Success in your work, the finding a better method, the better understanding that insures the better performing is hat and coat, is…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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

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But the best read naturalist who lends an entire and devout attention to truth, will see that there remains much to learn…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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

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Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day,…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The spirit only can teach. Not any profane man, not any sensual, not any liar, not any slave can teach, but only…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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We ought to be cautious in taking even the best ascertained opinions and practices of the primitive Church for our own. If…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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

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The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The secret of success in society is a certain heartiness and sympathy. A man who is not happy in company, cannot find…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The spirit of the world, the great calm presence of the creator, comes not forth to the sorceries of opium or of…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Nothing is secure but life, transition, the energizing spirit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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For it is only the finite that has wrought and suffered; the infinite lies stretched in smiling repose.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Let us draw a lesson from nature, which always works by short ways. When the fruit is ripe, it falls.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The evils of popular government appear greater than they are; there is compensation for them in spirit and energy it awakens.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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

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The history of mankind interests us only as it exhibits a steady gain of truth and right, in the incessant conflict which it records…

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If we will not interfere with our thought, but will act entirely, or see how the thing stands in God, we know the particular…

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If there is any period one would desire to be born in, is it not the age of Revolution; when the old and the…

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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.

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