Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
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There is always a best way of doing everything, if it be to boil an egg. Manners are the happy ways of doing things; each once a stroke of genius or of love, - now repeated and hardened into usage. They form at last a rich varnish, with which the routine of life is washed, and its details adorned.
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For nature beats in perfect tune, And rounds with rhyme her every rune, Whether she work in land or sea, Or hide underground her alchemy. Thou canst not wave thy staff in air, Or dip thy paddle in the lake, But it carves the bow of beauty there, And the ripples in rhymes the oar forsake.
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And striving to be man, the worm Mounts through all the spires of form.
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Ever from one who comes to-morrow Men wait their good and truth to borrow.
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Whoever fights, whoever falls, Justice conquers evermore.
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I know that the world I converse with in the city and in the farms, is not the world I think. I observe that difference, and shall observe it. One day I shall know the value and law of this discrepance. But I have not found that much was gained by manipular attempts to realize the world of thought.
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The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.
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A good symbol is the best argument, and is a missionary to persuade thousands.
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In how many churches, by how many prophets, tell me, is man made sensible that he is an infinite Soul; that the earth and heavens are passing into his mind; that he is drinking forever the soul of God?
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The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.
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A masterpiece of art has in the mind a fixed place in the chain of being, as much as a plant or a crystal.
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If I could put my hand on the north star, would it be as beautiful? The sea is lovely, but when we bathe in it, the beauty forsakes all the near water. For the imagination and senses cannot be gratified at the same time.
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He needs no library, for he has not done thinking; no church, for he is himself a prophet; no statute book, for he hath the Lawgiver; no money, for he is value itself; no road, for he is at home where he is.
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I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.
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The measure of action is the sentiment from which it proceeds. The greatest action may easily be one of the most private circumstance.
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Give all to love; Obey thy heart; Friends, kindred, days, Estate, good fame, Plans, credit, and the muse; Nothing refuse.
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In this distribution of functions, the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right state, he is, Man Thinking. In the degenerate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men's thinking.
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Yet a man may love a paradox, without losing either his wit or his honesty.
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The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
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Almost all people descend to meet.
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To-day unbind the captive, So only are ye unbound; Lift up a people from the dust, Trump of their rescue, sound!
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Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.
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The heroic cannot be the common, nor can the common be the heroic.
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Nothing can be preserved that is not good.