Every book is good to read which sets the reader in a working mood. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The sermon which I write inquisitive of truth is good a year after, but that which is written because a sermon must… — 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
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Poetry makes its own pertinence, and a single stanza outweighs a book of prose. — 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 writer, like a priest, must be exempted from secular labor. His work needs a frolic health; he must be at the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The world is young: the former great men call to us affectionately. We too must write Bibles, to unite again the heavens… — 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
I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius calls me. I would write on the lintels of the… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Who is he that shall control me? Why may not I act and speak and write and think with entire freedom? What… — 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… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
There is no luck in literary reputation. They who make up the final verdict upon every book are not the partial and… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is long ere we discover how rich we are. Our history, we are sure, is quite tame: we have nothing to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The Gods we worship write their names on our faces; be sure of that. And a man will worship something ... That… — 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. We read the quotation… — 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
For poetry was all written before time was, and whenever we are so finely organized that we can penetrate into that region… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Men are born to write. The gardener saves every slip, and seed, and peach-stone: his vocation is to be a planter of… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
It is long ere we discover how rich we are. Our history, we are sure, is quite tame: we have nothing to… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
In the learned journal, in the influential newspaper, I discern no form; only some irresponsible shadow; oftener some monied corporation, or some… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Broader and deeper we must write our annals, from an ethical reformation, from an influx of the ever new, ever sanative conscience,… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our moods do not believe in each other. To-day I am full of thoughts, and can write what I please. I see… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Our country, customs, laws, our ambitions, and our notions of fit and fair-all these we never made; we found them ready-made; we… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Each truth that a writer acquires is a lantern, which he turns full on what facts and thoughts lay already in his… — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
A poem, a sentence, causes us to see ourselves. I be, and I see my being, at the same time. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Good writing is a kind of skating which carries off the performer where he would not go. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak. — 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
Every sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves reading, as it is the sense of France. — 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
“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
The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
The way to write is to throw your body at the mark when your arrows are spent. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Copy Share Image
After you have pumped your brains for thoughts and verses, there is a better poetry hinted in whistling a tune on your… — 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 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
