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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

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Famous Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

“Self-trust is the first secret of success, the belief that if you are here the authorities of the universe put you here, and for cause, or with some task strictly appointed you in your constitution, and so long as you work at that you are well and successful”

IfsFirstsWellsLongSelfUniverseBeliefCausesSecretSuccessfulAuthorityTasksConstitutionSecret To SuccessSelf Trust
Book:The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Then, though I prize my friends, I cannot afford to talk with them and study their visions, lest I lose my own. It would indeed give me a certain household joy to quit this lofty seeking, this spiritual astronomy, or search of stars, and come down to warm sympathies with you; but then I know well I shall mourn always the vanishing of my mighty gods.”

KnowsGivingWellsSpiritualJoyCertainStarsFriendshipLosesMy OwnVisionStudyFriendsMy FriendsGive MeSeekingWarmQuittingAstronomyPrizeHouseholdMournLoftyMighty GodVanishing
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)
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“We sometimes observe that spoiled children contract a habit of annoying quite wantonly those who have charge of them, and seem tomeasure their own sense of well-being, not by what they do, but by the degree of reaction they can cause. It is vain to get rid of them by not minding them: if purring and humming is not noticed, they squeal and screech; then if you chide and console them, they find the experiment succeeds, and they begin again. The child will sit in your arms contented if you do nothing. If you take a book and read, he commences hostile operations.”

IfsWellsChildrenBookSometimesSeemsCausesArmsHabitSucceedDegreesExperimentsReactionsWell BeingVainOperationsContractsAnnoyingHostileSpoiledConsoleBegin AgainHummingPurringSpoiled Children
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)
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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.”

MenMindWellsBodyCultureUnited StatesInfluenceLandRelationErrorsTraditionalFantasticRemedyContinentsScholasticsTraditional Education
Book:Essays and 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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“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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“We are shut up in school and college recitation rooms for ten to fifteen years, and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing. We cannot use our hands, or our legs, or our eyes, or our arms. We do not know an edible root in the woods. We cannot tell our course by the stars, nor the hour of day by the sun. It is well if we can swim and skate. We are afraid of a horse or a cow, of a dog, of a cat, of a spider. Far better was the Roman rule to teach a boy nothing that he could not learn standing.”

IfsKnowsYearsWellsUseHandsEyeSchoolLastsCoursesStarsHoursRoomsBoysTeachSunDogCollegeArmsTenStandingRootsCatHorseLegsWoodsSwimCowsFifteenShut UpSpidersSkatesFifteen YearsRecitation
Book:The Laws of Nature: Excerpts from the Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”

LoveLifeInspirationalWellsHelpingLife IsPurposeDifferencesCompassionHistoryEnvironmentHonorHelping OthersMaking A DifferencePurpose Of LifeCompassionateVolunteerHonorableService To OthersKindness And CompassionService To HumanitySource Of LifeLife Well LivedLife Is Worth LivingGiving To OthersMaking A Difference In The WorldYour Purpose In LifeHelping Others In NeedLiving Life WellGiving HelpSpirit Of LifeYou Make A DifferenceLive With PurposeOthers Helping YouUseful LifeWhat Is The Purpose Of LifeDifferences In Life
Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

InspirationalWellsLife IsSpiritAttitudePositive ThinkingTomorrowAchievementInspiredPositive AttitudeNonsenseSerenitySelf RelianceRelianceNew DayBeginningMeaningful LifeLive In The PresentLive For TodayOf My MindBlundersPeople In Your LifePositive MotivationBetter FutureBe InspiredSocial AnxietyFamous MotivationalFuture LifeLife Well LivedLive In The NowPresent FutureLife MistakesPresent LifeInspirational ForgivenessBetter TomorrowNew Day New BeginningDeep MeaningLift You UpLife RegretLiving Life WellPositive Thinking In LifeLife Is GreatFeeling StuckLife MotivationNice LifeLearn To Let GoToday Is A New DayLive For The DayPositive DayInspirational OfficeTomorrow Is A New DayIndomitable SpiritWorkplace MotivationWorkplace MotivationalLife Is AmazingDone With Love
Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”

WritingYearsWellsHeartDoneMomentsSpiritForgetRichDoubtTomorrowWasteAnxietyOptimismDearYesterdayOptimisticNo DoubtNonsenseAbsurdityOptimistInvitationsNew DayBlundersBeing OptimisticGood OptimisticTomorrow Is A New Day
Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it.”

WellsMotivationalAgeActionPastFearHoursDoubtDutyWastePerformancesPreparationBeing The BestAssuredWaste Of LifeDoubt And FearAnxiety And Fear
Book:Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume VIII: Letters and Social Aims
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“You think that your silence on certain topics, perhaps in the face of injustice, or unkindness, or mean-spiritedness, causes others to reserve judgement of you. Far otherwise; your silence utters very loud: you have no oracle to speak, no wisdom to offer, and your fellow men have learned that you cannot help them. Doth not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice? We would be well to do likewise.”

ThinkingMenWellsMeanHelpingWould BeFacesCertainSpeakCausesUnderstandingVoiceSilenceKindnessCryOffersFellowsInjusticeLoudJudgementReservesTopicsFellow ManOraclesUnkindness
Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Every man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well. He has changed his market cart into a chariot of the sun.”

MenWellsDoeCareSunHonestyChangedTake CareNeighborEvery ManCheatCartsChariots
Book:The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life
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“Power is what they want, not candy-power to execute their design, power to give legs and feet, form and actuality to their thought; which, to a clear-sighted man, appears the end for which the universe exists, and all its resources might be well applied.”

MenWantGivingWellsEndsMightFormUniverseClearFeetDesignResourcesLegsCandyActualityLegs And Feet
Book:The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life
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“The soul comes from without into the human body, as into a temporary abode, and it goes out of it anew it passes into other habitations, for the soul is immortal." "It is the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but only retire a little from sight and afterwards return again. Nothing is dead; men feign themselves dead, and endure mock funerals... and there they stand looking out of the window, sound and well, in some strange new disguise.”

MenWorldHumansWellsLittlesSoulBodyDiesSoundSecretStrangeReturnAll ThingsWindowSightEndureImmortalTemporaryFuneralRetiringDisguiseReincarnationHuman BodyIncarnationMockDead ManAbode
Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“So . . . I feel in regard to this aged England . . . pressed upon by transitions of trade and . . . competing populations,-I see her not dispirited, not weak, but well remembering that she has seen dark days before;-indeed, with a kind of instinct that she sees a little better in a cloudy day, and that, in storm of battle and calamity, she has a secret vigor and a pulse like a cannon.”

FeelsWellsKindLittlesRememberDarkSecretKindnessBattleWeakEnglandRegardTradeInstinctPopulationStormTransitionCompetingCalamityPulseVigorCannonsCloudyDark DaysCloudy Day
Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.”

ThinkingMindWellsMayLittlesSaidSoulHardSpeakDivineWallShadowConcernPhilosopherFoolishConsistencySelf RelianceMisunderstoodRelianceStatesmenMorrowInconsistencyGreat SoulsLittle MindsHard Words
Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson
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