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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

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Famous Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

“It is so wonderful to our neurologists that a man can see without his eyes, that it does not occur to them that is just as wonderful that he should see with them; and that is ever the difference between the wise and the unwise: the latter wonders at what is unusual, the wise man wonders at the usual.”

MenShouldDoeWisdomEyeDifferencesWonderWiseWonderfulSightHis EyesLatterUnusualUsualUnwiseNeurologists
Book:A Year with Emerson: A Daybook
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“Those who are esteemed umpires of taste, are often persons who have acquired some knowledge of admired pictures or sculptures, andhave an inclination for whatever is elegant; but if you inquire whether they are beautiful souls, and whether their own acts are like fair pictures, you learn that they are selfish and sensual. Their cultivation is local, as if you should rub a log of dry wood in one spot to produce fire, all the rest remaining cold.”

IfsShouldPersonsSoulBeautifulFireProduceColdTasteFairsCriticismWoodsSelfishLocalsSpotsSensualDryElegantSculptureInclinationUmpiresCultivationBeautiful Soul
Book:The Portable Emerson: New Edition
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“Therefore all just persons are satisfied with their own praise. They refuse to explain themselves, and are content that new actions should do them that office. They believe that we communicate without speech, and above speech, and that no right action of ours is quite unaffecting to our friends, at whatever distance; for the influence of action is not to be measured by miles.”

ShouldBelievePersonsActionInfluenceSpeechOfficePraiseDistanceRefuseCommunicateMilesSatisfiedRight Action
Book:Essays, First and Second Series
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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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“Why should all virtue work in one and the same way? Why should all give dollars? It is very inconvenient to us country folk, and we do not think any good will come of it. We have not dollars; merchants have; let them give them. Farmers will give corn; poets will sing; women will sew; laborers will lend a hand; the children will bring flowers.”

ThinkingWayGivingShouldChildrenCountryHandsVirtuePoetFlowerDollarsCharityFolksFarmersCornGood WillMerchantsInconvenientLaborers
Book:The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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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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“If I should go out of church whenever I hear a false statement I could never stay there five minutes. But why come out? The streetis as false as the church, and when I get to my house, or to my manners, or to my speech, I have not got away from the lie.”

IfsShouldLyingHouseChurchFiveSocietyMinutesSpeechStatementsMannersFive Minutes
Book:The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations
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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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“If the individuals who compose the purest circles of aristocracy in Europe, the guarded blood of centuries, should pass in review,in such manner as that we could, at leisure, and critically inspect their behavior, we might find no gentleman, and no lady; for, although excellent specimens of courtesy and high-breeding would gratify us in the assemblage, in the particulars, we should detect offence. Because, elegance comes of no breeding, but of birth.”

IfsShouldMightIndividualBloodCenturyBirthBehaviorEuropeCirclesExcellentGentlemanReviewsLeisureEleganceCourtesyBreedingAristocracyGuardedOffenceAssemblage
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)
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“When a thought of Plato becomes a thought to me,--when a truth that fired the soul of Pindar fires mine, time is no more. When I feel that we two meet in a perception, that our two souls are tinged with the same hue, and do as it were run into one, why should I measure degrees of latitude, why should I count Egyptian years?”

FeelsShouldYearsTwoSoulRunningFireInfluenceMinesDegreesPerceptionShould IPlatoEgyptianHueLatitudeTwo Souls
Book:The Annotated Emerson
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“I like my boy with his endless sweet soliloquies and iterations and his utter inability to conceive why I should not leave all my nonsense, business, and writing and come to tie up his toy horse, as if there was or could be any end to nature beyond his horse. And he is wiser than we when [he] threatens his whole threat "I will not love you."”

IfsShouldWritingEndsWholeBoysLove YouSweetHorseThreatEndlessTiesNonsenseToysWiserInabilityMy Boys
Book:Emerson: A Modern Anthology
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“It must be that when God speaketh, he should communicate, not one thing, but all things; should fill the world with his voice; should scatter forth light, nature, time, souls, from the centre of the present thought; and new date and new create the whole.Whenever a mind is simple and receives a divine wisdom, old things pass away, - means, teachers, texts, temples fall; it lives now, and absorbs past and future into the present hour. All things are made sacred by relation to it,-one as much as another. All things are disolved to ther center by thier cause.”

WorldShouldMindMeanMadeSoulWholeLightPastFallCausesVoiceHoursSimpleTeacherOne ThingDivineAll ThingsRelationSacredCommunicateTemplesCentrePassing AwayOld ThingsDivine Wisdom
Book:The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”

InspirationalGivingShouldInspiringPowerfulHabitGratitudeAll ThingsGratefulGood ThingsAppreciationThanksBe GratefulThankfulnessThankfulBeing ThankfulAdvancementGratefulnessThankful GratitudeGratitude And AppreciationI Am GratefulExpressing GratitudeThanksgiving And GratitudeThanksgiving ThanksThanksgiving GratitudeThank You GratitudeGratitude And ThanksThankfulness And GratitudeGreat GratitudeSo GratefulLove And GratitudeInspirational GratitudeThankful For YouExpress AppreciationThanksgiving ThankfulGratitude For HelpWords Of GratitudeLove GratitudeThank You AppreciationGratitude For LifeGrateful For YouGrateful ThankfulGood ThanksgivingGratitude For HealthThanksgiving LoveGrateful InspirationalGratitude For WorkGratitude To GodThankfulness For LoveHappy And GratefulGrateful ThanksThings To Be ThankfulGreat ThanksgivingSpiritual GratitudeGrateful For LifeBeing Grateful For LifeDaily GratitudeThings To Be GratefulGrateful And ThankfulGrateful HappyThanksgiving GratefulGrateful To God
Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.”

IfsMenShouldBookWisdomReadingAsksEducationReaderIntelligentIntelligenceIntellectEncountersOur WorldReading BooksBook ReadingTextbooksBooks And ReadingLibrary BooksIntelligent ManJoy Of ReadingLibraries Books And ReadingReading And LiteracyBook ReadersLibraries And ReadingSchool LibraryReading Good BooksInspiring BookInspiring ReadingFamous Book
Book:Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume VIII: Letters and Social Aims
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“When I go into the garden with a spade and dig a bed I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.”

FeelsShouldHas BeensDoneHandsEarthNatureMy OwnHealthBedGardenShould HaveGardeningGardenerSpringtimeSpadesExhilaration
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)
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“A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.”

MenShouldMindLightCertainWatchesGeniusFlashRejectedSageSelf RelianceRelianceMajestyGleamFirmamentBards
Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“The great object of Education should be commensurate with the object of life. It should be a moral one; to teach self-trust: to inspire the youthful man with an interest in himself; with a curiosity touching his own nature; to acquaint him with the resources of his mind, and to teach him that there is all his strength.”

MenShouldMindSelfInterestMoralTeachObjectsInspireResourcesCuriosityCuteTouchingSelf Trust
Book:The Selected Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“The lessons of science should be experimental also. The sight of a planet through a telescope is worth all the course on astronomy; the shock of the electric spark in the elbow outvalues all theories; the taste of the nitrous oxide, the firing of an artificial volcano, are better than volumes of chemistry.”

ShouldScienceCoursesPlanetsTheoryLessonsTasteAccountsSightAstronomyShockChemistrySparksArtificialElectricVolumeElbowsTelescopesFiringVolcanoes
Book:The Annotated Emerson
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