Source: The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Famous Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
“Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact.”
Source: Nature, Addresses and Lectures
“Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well.”
Source: Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks: 1847-1848
“I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women.”
Source: The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude
“If the tongue had not been framed for articulation, man would still be a beast in the forest.”
Source: Representative Men: Seven Lectures
“If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground.”
Source: Society and Solitude: Twelve Chapters
“People only see what they are prepared to see.”
Source: Emerson in His Journals
“Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.”
Source: The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Doing well is the result of doing good. That's what capitalism is all about.”
“Make yourself necessary to somebody.”
Source: Essays and Lectures
“Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.”
Source: Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume VII: 1838-1842
“The best effort of a fine person is felt after we have left their presence.”
“People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never.”
“We acquire the strength we have overcome.”
Source: A Dream Too Wild: Emerson Meditations for Every Day of the Year
Source: Essays and Lectures
“Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret.”
Source: The complete works of Ralph Waldo Emerson
“We aim above the mark to hit the mark.”
Source: Nature and Other Essays
“Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual.”
Source: Essays and Lectures
Source: Ralph Waldo Emerson
“There is creative reading as well as creative writing.”
Source: Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume V: 1835-1838
“Genius always finds itself a century too early.”
Source: The Topical Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.”
Source: The Conduct of Life
Source: Emerson's Essays: Top Essays
“Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.”
Source: The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson: 1854-1861
“It is the quality of the moment, not the number of days, or events, or of actors, that imports.”
Source: Essays and Lectures
“Every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults.”
Source: The Portable Emerson: New Edition
“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”
Source: The Portable Emerson: New Edition
“The search after the great men is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of manhood.”
Source: Representative Men: Seven Lectures
“The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work.”
Source: The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson
“There is an optical illusion about every person we meet.”
Source: Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.”
“Some books leave us free and some books make us free.”
Source: The Heart of Emerson's Journals
“The ancestor of every action is a thought.”
Source: The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others.”
Source: The Conduct of Life
“Our admiration of the antique is not admiration of the old, but of the natural.”
Source: The Early Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The highest revelation is that God is in every man.”
Source: A Dream Too Wild: Emerson Meditations for Every Day of the Year
Source: Essays and Lectures
“We are by nature observers, and thereby learners. That is our permanent state.”
Source: The Power of Emerson's Wisdom
“Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words.”
Source: The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays, second series
“Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.”
Source: Essays
Source: Essays, lectures and orations