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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

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Famous Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

“We teach boys to be such men as we are. We do not teach them to aspire to be all they can. We do not give them a training as if webelieved in their noble nature. We scarce educate their bodies. We do not train the eye and the hand. We exercise their understandings to the apprehension and comparison of some facts, to a skill in numbers, in words; we aim to make accountants, attorneys, engineers; but not to make able, earnest, great- hearted men.”

IfsMenGivingFactsBodyHandsEyeAbleUnderstandingNumbersEducationBoysTeachExerciseSkillsTrainingAimTrainNobleComparisonEducateEngineersAspireEarnestHeartedAttorneyScarceApprehensionAccountants
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)
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“The Roman rule was, to teach a boy nothing that he could not learn standing. The old English rule was, "All summer in the field, and all winter in the study." And it seems as if a man should learn to plant, or to fish, or to hunt, that he might secure his subsistence at all events, and not be painful to his friends and fellow men.”

IfsMenShouldSeemsMightEducationBoysTeachStudyEventsFieldsSummerStandingFellowsPlantWinterFishesPainfulSecureHuntsFellow ManSubsistenceOld English
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)
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“The intelligent have a right over the ignorant, namely, the right of instructing them. The right punishment of one out of tune, isto make him play in tune; the fine which the good, refusing to govern, ought to pay, is, to be governed by a worse man; that his guards shall not handle gold and silver, but shall be instructed that there is gold and silver in their souls, which will make men willing to give them every thing which they need.”

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Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“All goes to show that the soul in man is not an organ, but animates and exercises all the organs; is not a function, like the power of memory, of calculation, of comparison, but uses these as hands and feet; is not a faculty, but a light, is not the intellect or the will, but the master of the intellect and the will; is the background of our being, in which they lie,--an immensity not possessed and that cannot be possessed.”

MenSoulUseShowsHandsLightLyingMemoriesFeetMastersExerciseFunctionIntellectBackgroundsComparisonFacultyPossessedOrgansCalculationsImmensityHands And Feet
Book:Self-Reliance, the Over-Soul, and Other Essays
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“Is it not manifest that our academic institutions should have a wider scope; that they should not be timid and keep the ruts of the last generation, but that wise men thinking for themselves and heartily seeking the good of mankind, and counting the cost of innovation, should dare to arouse the young to a just and heroic life; that the moral nature should be addressed in the school-room, and children should be treated as the high-born candidates of truth and virtue?”

ThinkingMenShouldChildrenSchoolLastsYoungBornRoomsEducationMoralVirtueWiseGenerationsMankindMoralityCostShould HaveInnovationInstitutionsSeekingDareTreatedCandidatesManifestHeroicAcademicScopeCountingRutsCounting The Cost
Book:The Selected Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Our young people are diseased with the theological problems of original sin, origin of evil, predestination, and the like. These never presented a practical difficulty to any man,--never darkened across any man's road, who did not go out of his way to seek them. These are the soul's mumps, and measles, and whooping- coughs, and those who have not caught them cannot describe their health or prescribe a cure. A simple mind will not know these enemies.”

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Book:Essays
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“Every body we know surrounds himself with a fine house, fine books, conservatory, gardens, equipage, and all manner of toys, as screens to interpose between himself and his guest. Does it not seem as if man was of a very sly, elusive nature, and dreaded nothing so much as a full rencontre front to front with his fellow?”

IfsKnowsMenDoeBookBodySeemsHouseFrontsFineGardenFellowsScreensSurroundGuestsToysHospitalityElusiveSlyConservatory
Book:The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Pride can go without domestics, without fine clothes, can live in a house with two rooms, can eat potato, purslain, beans, lyed corn, can work on the soil, can travel afoot, can talk with poor men, or sit silent well contented with fine saloons. But vanity costs money, labor, horses, men, women, health and peace, and is still nothing at last; a long way leading nowhere.--Only one drawback; proud people are intolerably selfish, and the vain are gentle and giving.”

PeopleMenWayGivingWellsLongStillsTwoLastsHousePoorRoomsPrideFineProudCostClothesLaborHorseSilentSelfishVanityVainGentleSoilPotatoesLong WayCornMen WomenBeansPoor ManDrawbacksSaloons
Book:Nature - Conduct of Life
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“The land is the appointed remedy for whatever is false and fantastic in our culture. The continent we inhabit is to be physic andfood for our mind, as well as our body. The land, with its tranquilizing, sanative influences, is to repair the errors of a scholastic and traditional education, and bring us to just relations with men and things.”

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Book:Essays and Lectures
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“The purpose of life seems to be to acquaint a man with himself and whatever science or art or course of action he engages in reacts upon and illuminates the recesses of his own mind. Thus friends seem to be only mirrors to draw out and explain to us ourselves; and that which draws us nearer our fellow man, is, that the deep Heart in one, answers the deep Heart in another, - that we find we have (a common Nature) - one life which runs through all individuals, and which is indeed Divine.”

MenMindHeartArtSeemsRunningActionPurposeCoursesIndividualAnswersCommonDivineDrawsMirrorsFellowsPurpose Of LifeFellow ManRecessDeep Heart
Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“And in cases where profound conviction has been wrought, the eloquent man is he who is no beautiful speaker, but who is inwardly drunk with a certain belief. It agitates and tears him, and perhaps almost bereaves him of the power of articulation.”

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Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)
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“The child realizes to every man his own earliest remembrance, and so supplies a defect in our education, or enables us to live over the unconscious history with a sympathy so tender as to be almost personal experience.”

MenChildrenRealizingEducationChildhoodEvery ManUnconsciousSympathyRemembranceDefectsSuppliesPersonal Experiences
Book:The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude
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“Who shall set a limit to the influence of a human being? There are men, who, by their sympathetic attractions, carry nations withthem, and lead the activity of the human race. And if there be such a tie, that, wherever the mind of man goes, nature will accompany him, perhaps there are men whose magnetisms are of that force to draw material and elemental powers, and, where they appear, immense instrumentalities organize around them.”

IfsMenMindHumansForceNationsLeadershipHuman BeingsRaceInfluenceMaterialsActivityLimitsDrawsAttractionHuman RaceTiesImmenseOrganizeSympatheticBeing ThereAccompanyElementalsMagnetismMental Power
Book:The Annotated Emerson
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“Skepticism is unbelief in cause and effect. A man does not see, that, as he eats, so he thinks: as he deals, so he is, and so he appears; he does not see that his son is the son of his thoughts and of his actions; that fortunes are not exceptions but fruits; that relation and connection are not somewhere and sometimes, but everywhere and always; no miscellany, no exemption, no anomaly,--but method, and an even web; and what comes out, that was put in.”

ThinkingMenDoeSometimesActionCausesDealsEffectsSonConnectionsRelationMethodFortuneFruitExceptionSkepticismCause And EffectUnbeliefAnomaliesExemptionMiscellany
Book:Essays and English Traits by Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Five Foot Shelf of Classics, Vol. V (in 51 Volumes)
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“I count him a great man who inhabits a higher sphere of thought, into which other men rise with labor and difficulty; he has but to open his eyes to see things in a true light, and in large relations; whilst they must make painful corrections, and keep a vigilant eye on many sources of error.”

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Book:Representative Men: Seven Lectures
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“Our culture, therefore, must not omit the arming of the man. Let him hear in season, that he is born into the state of war, and that the commonwealth and his own well-being require that he should not go dancing in the weeds of peace, but warned, self- collected, and neither defying nor dreading the thunder, let him take both reputation and life in his hand, and, with perfect urbanity, dare the gibbet and the mob by the absolute truth of his speech, and the rectitude of his behaviour.”

MenShouldWellsWarSelfStatesHandsCultureBornPerfectHe ManSpeechSeasonsAbsolutesDancingDareReputationWell BeingWeedIndividualismBehaviourThunderCommonwealthAbsolute TruthDefyingRectitude
Book:Emerson's Essays: Top Essays
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“Each man, if he attempts to join himself to others, is on all sides cramped and diminished of his proportion; and the stricter theunion, the smaller and the more pitiful he is. But leave him alone, to recognize in every hour and place the secret soul, he will go up and down doing the works of a true member, and, to the astonishment of all, the work will be done with concert, though no man spoke.”

IfsMenSoulDoneSidesHoursSecretMembersProportionSpokesConcertsIndividualismUp And DownAstonishmentPitiful
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)
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“Plato says that the punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is, to live under the government of worse men; and the like regret is suggested to all the auditors, as the penalty of abstaining to speak,--that they shall hear worse orators than themselves.”

MenGovernmentSufferingSpeakWiseRegretRefusePunishmentPenaltiesPlatoOratorsAuditorsAbstaining
Book:Society and Solitude: Twelve Chapters
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“A garden has this advantage, that it makes it indifferent where you live. A well-laid garden makes the face of the country of no account; let that be low or high, grand or mean, you have made a beautiful abode worthy of man.”

MenWellsMeanMadeCountryBeautifulFacesLowsAdvantageGardenAccountsWorthyIndifferentAbodeWhere You Live
Book:The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations
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“In our large cities, the population is godless, materialized,--no bond, no fellow-feeling, no enthusiasm. These are not men, but hungers, thirsts, fevers, and appetites walking. How is it people manage to live on,--so aimless as they are? After their peppercorn aims are gained, it seems as if the lime in their bones alone held them together, and not any worthy purpose.”

PeopleIfsMenFeelingsSeemsTogetherPurposeCitiesWalkingAimFellowsHungerPopulationWorthyBonesManageEnthusiasmAppetiteThirstFeverLimesLarge CitiesFellow Feeling
Book:The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“What a man does, that he has. What has he to do with hope or fear? In himself is his might. Let him regard no good as solid but that which is in his nature, and which must grow out of him as long as he exists. The goods of fortune may come and go like summer leaves; let him scatter them on every wind as the momentary signs of his infinite productiveness.”

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Book:Nature and Other Essays
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