Pretension may sit still, but cannot act. Pretension never feigned an act of real greatness. Pretension never wrote an Iliad, nordrove back… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The silence that accepts merit as the most natural thing in the world is the highest applause. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A ruddy drop of manly blood The surging sea outweighs; The world uncertain comes and goes, The lover rooted stays. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Successful is the person who has lived well, laughed often and loved much, who has gained the respect of children, who leaves… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is greatest to believe and to hope well of the world, because he who does so, quits the world of experience,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In spite of warnings, change rarely occurs until the status quo becomes more painful than change. People seem not to see that… — 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
For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Each work of art excludes the world, concentrates attention on itself. For the time it is the only thing worth doing -to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Many a profound genius, I suppose, who fills the world with fame of his exploding renowned errors, is yet everyday posed and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Men do what is called a good action, as some piece of courage or charity, much as they would pay a fine… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
As the traveler who has lost his way, throws his reins on his horse's neck, and trusts to the instinct of the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Every burned book or house enlightens the world; every suppressed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The civility of the world has reached that pitch that their more moral genius is becoming indispensable, and the quality of this… — 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
The eyes of men converse as much as their tongues, with the advantage that the ocular dialect needs no dictionary, but is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
I find it more credible, since it is anterior information, that one man should know heaven, as the Chinese say, than that… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The reverence for the Scriptures is an element of civilization, for thus has the history of the world been preserved, and is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The world is upheld by the veracity of good men: they make the earth wholesome. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Though we travel the world over to find beauty, we must carry it with us or we find it not . .… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
This book of Montaigne the world has endorsed by translating it into all tongues. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
For the world is not painted, or adorned, but is from the beginning beautiful; and God has not made some beautiful things,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
At the gates of the forest, the surprised man of the world is forced to leave his city estimates of great and… — 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