The colleges, while they provide us with libraries, furnish no professors of books; and I think no chair is so much needed. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
People do not deserve to have good writing, they are so pleased with bad. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The nobler the truth or sentiment, the less imports the question of authorship. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We are as much informed of a writer's genius by what he selects as by what he originates. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our high respect for a well-read man is praise enough of literature — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Books take their place according to their specific gravity as surely as potatoes in a tub. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In the right hands, literature is not resorted to as a consolation, and by the broken and decayed, but as a decalogue. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum of insects. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The good writer seems to be writing about himself, but has his eye always on that thread of the Universe which runs… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Books are the best type of influence of the past...Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends, but they are imprisoned by an enchanter in these paper… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“It is remarkable, the character of the pleasure we derive from the best books. They impress us with the conviction, that one… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book; a personality which, by birth and quality, is… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The permanence of all books is fixed by no effort friendly or hostile, but by their own specific gravity, or the intrinsic… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“There are books which take rank in our life with parents and lovers and passionate experiences, so medicinal, so stringent, so revolutionary,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“Better that the book should be not quite so good, and the writer better, and not himself a ridiculous contrast to all… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Expediency of literature, reason of literature, lawfulness of writing down a thought, is questioned; much is to say on both sides,and, while… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Be a little careful about your library. Do you foresee what you will do with it? Very little to be sure. But… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The use of literature is to afford us a platform whence we may command a view of our present life, a purchase… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We prize books, and they prize them most who are themselves wise. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“It is remarkable, the character of the pleasure we derive from the best books.” — 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
O Day of days when we can read! The reader and the book, either without the other is naught. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“The crowds and centuries of books are only commentary and elucidation, echoes and weakeners of those few great voices of Time.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There are books . . . which rank in our life with parents and lovers and passionate experiences. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Friends should be like books, easy to find when you need them, but seldom used. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst...They are for nothing but to inspire. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
“good writing and brilliant discourse are perpetual allegories. This” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Some of the sweetest hours in life, in retrospect will be found to have been spent with books. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The book written against fame and learning has the author's name on the title-page. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Classics which at home are drowsily read have a strange charm in a country inn, or in the transom of a merchant… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
We write from aspiration and antagonism, as well as from experience. We paint those qualities which we do not posses. — 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
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
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
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
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
“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
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
A child reminds us that playtime is an essential part of our daily routine. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
No man can be criticised but by a greater than he. Do not, then, read the reviews. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share
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
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 Copy Share
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 Copy Share
