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Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The element running through entire nature, which we popularly call Fate, is known to us as limitation. Whatever limits us, we callFate.”

Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Author

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American essayist, poet, and philosopher. Born on May 25, 1803, and died on April 27, 1882. Known for his transcendentalist philosophy, his works have had a profound impact on literature and the intellectual world. more

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“And last of all, high over thought, in the world of morals, Fate appears as vindicator, levelling the high, lifting the low, requiring justice in man, and always striking soon or late when justice is not done. What is useful will last, what is hurtful will sink.”

Men World Done Lasts Justice Moral Fate Late Lows Lifting Hurtful

Book:The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Source: The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Every man beholds his human condition with a degree of melancholy. As a ship aground is battered by the waves, so man, imprisonedin mortal life, lies open to the mercy of coming events.”

Men Humans Lying Fate Conditions Mankind Events Degrees Mercy Wave Every Man Ships Mortals Melancholy Human Condition Battered

Book:Nature and Other Essays

Source: Nature and Other Essays

“Our condition as men is risky and ticklish enough. One can not be sure of himself and his fortune an hour, but he may be whisked off into some pitiable or ridiculous plight.”

Men May Enough Hours Fate Conditions Fortune Ridiculous Can Not Plight Ticklish

Book:The Annotated Emerson

Source: The Annotated Emerson

“Napoleon said of Massena, that he was not himself until the battle began to go against him; then, when the dead began to fall in ranks around him, awoke his powers of combination, and he put on terror and victory as a robe.”

Said Fall Victory Battle Adversity Terror Combination Robes

Book:The Annotated Emerson

Source: The Annotated Emerson

“To give money to a sufferer is only a come-off. It is only a postponement of the real payment, a bribe paid for silence, a creditsystem in which a paper promise to pay answers for the time instead of liquidation. We owe to man higher succors than food and fire. We owe to man.”

Men Giving Real Answers Pay Silence Fire Higher Promise Paper Paid Charity Payment Bribe Sufferers Postponement

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)

“It is a capital blunder; as you discover, when another man recites his charities.”

Men Charity Boast Another Man Blunders

Book:The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Source: The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Love should make joy; but our benevolence is unhappy. Our Sunday-schools, and churches, and pauper-societies are yokes to the neck. We pain ourselves to please nobody.”

Should School Pain Joy Church Please Charity Unhappy Necks Sunday Benevolence Yoke Sunday School

Book:Essays and Lectures

Source: Essays and Lectures

“Pretension may sit still, but cannot act. Pretension never feigned an act of real greatness. Pretension never wrote an Iliad, nordrove back Xerxes, nor christianized the world, nor abolished slavery.”

World May Stills Real Greatness Slavery Authenticity Pretension Iliad

Book:Essays, lectures and orations

Source: Essays, lectures and orations

“Each mind has its own method. A true man never acquires after college rules.”

Men Mind Education Learning College Method Acquire True Man

Book:Essays and Lectures

Source: Essays and Lectures

“Men seek to be great; they would have offices, wealth, power, and fame. They think that to be great is to possess one side of nature,--the sweet, without the other side,--the bitter.”

Thinking Men Sides Wealth Greatness Sweet Fame Office Ambition Bitter

Book:The Portable Emerson: New Edition

Source: The Portable Emerson: New Edition