Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
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All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.
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A good symbol is the best argument, and is a missionary to persuade thousands.
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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 ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.
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The alleged power to charm down insanity, or ferocity in beasts, is a power behind the eye.
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The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.
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And striving to be man, the worm Mounts through all the spires of form.
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Whoever fights, whoever falls, Justice conquers evermore.
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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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Ever from one who comes to-morrow Men wait their good and truth to borrow.
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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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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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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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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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I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.
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Almost all people descend to meet.
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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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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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The manly part is to do with might and main what you can do.
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The heroic cannot be the common, nor can the common be the heroic.
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The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops - no, but the kind of man the country turns out.