Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
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Things added to things, as statistics, civil history, are inventories. Things used as language are inexhaustibly attractive.
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Every genuine work of art has as much reason for being as the earth and the sun.
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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.
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Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: Every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.
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In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.
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But all sorts of things and weather Must be taken in together To make up a year, And a sphere.
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We do not count a man's years until he has nothing else to count.
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As there is a use in medicine for poisons, so the world cannot move without rogues.
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Of course, he who has put forth his total strength in fit actions, has the richest return of wisdom.
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Alcohol, hashish, prussic acid, strychnine are weak dilutions. The surest poison is time.
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It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
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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 word liberty in the mouth of Mr. Webster sounds like the word love in the mouth of a courtesan.
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Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.
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Deep in the man sits fast his fate To mould his fortunes, mean or great.
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Do what we can, summer will have its flies: if we walk in the woods, we must feed mosquitos: if we go a-fishing, we must expect a wet coat.
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There are two laws discrete Not reconciled, Law for man, and law for thing.
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Though love repine, and reason chafe, There came a voice without reply, - ''Tis man's perdition to be safe, When for the truth he ought to die.'
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The less government we have, the better, - the fewer laws, and the less confided power. The antidote to this abuse of formal Government, is, the influence of private character, the growth of the Individual.
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There are men who astonish and delight, men who instruct and guide. Some men's words I remember so well that I must often use them to express my thought. Yes, because I perceive that we have heard the same truth, but they have heard it better.
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In the vaunted works of Art The master-stroke is Nature's part. 5.
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God said, I am tired of kings, I suffer them no more; Up to my ear the morning brings The outrage of the poor.
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Far or forgot to me is near; Shadow and sunlight are the same; The vanished gods to me appear; And one to me are shame and fame.
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Nor mourn the unalterable Days That Genius goes and Folly stays.