“Man Thinking must not be subdued by his instruments. Books are for the scholar's idle times. When he can read God directly,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share 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 Copy Share Image
There is no thought in any mind, but it quickly tends to convert itself into power. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
What is the end of human life? It is not, believe me, the chief end of man that he should make a… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Speak as you think, be what you are, pay your debts of all kinds. I prefer to be owned as sound and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
What is life but the angle of vision? A man is measured by the angle at which he looks at objects. What… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Why should all virtue work in one and the same way? Why should all give dollars? It is very inconvenient to us… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When the vain speaker has sat down, and the people say 'what a good speech,' it still takes an ounce to balance… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The dead sleep in their moonless night; my business is with the living. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In old Egypt, it was established law, that the vote of a prophet be reckoned equal to a hundred hands. I think… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For no man can write anything who does not think that what he writes is, for the time, the history of the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The world exists, as I understand it, to teach the science of liberty. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Without looking, then, to those extraordinary social influences which are now acting in precisely this direction, but only at whatis inevitably doing… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Why needs a man be rich? Why must he have horses, fine garments, handsome apartments, access to public houses, and places of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I think no virtue goes with size;The reason of all cowardiceIs, that men are overgrown,And, to be valiant, must come downTo the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Senators and presidents have climbed so high with pain enough, not because they think the place specially agreeable, but as an apology… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Religionists are clinging to little, positive, verbal, formal versions of the moral law... while the laws of the Law, the great circling… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Two sorts of writers possess genius: those who think, and those who cause others to think. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The less a man thinks or knows about his virtues, the better we like him. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud. I am arrived at last… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
When a man thinks happily, he finds no foot-track in the field he traverses. All spontaneous thought is irrespective of all else. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
If the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“I have no expectation that any man will read history aright who thinks that what was done in a remote age, by… — 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
