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Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes - Page 138

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As thinkers, mankind has ever divided into two sects, Materialists and Idealists; the first class founding on experience, the second on consciousness; the first class beginning to think from the data of the senses, the

As thinkers, mankind has ever divided into two sects, Materialists and Idealists; the first class founding on experience, the second on consciousness; the first class beginning to think from the data of the senses, the second class perceive that the senses are not final and say, The senses give us representations of things, but what are the things themselves, they cannot tell. The materialist insists on facts, on history, on the force of circumstances and the animal wants of man; the idealists on the power of Thought and Will, on inspiration, on miracle, on individual culture.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Inspiration, Men, Thinking
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.4265, Delphi Classics

Society is frivolous, and shreds its day into scraps, its conversation into ceremonies and escapes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Society, Conversation, Ceremony
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “Nature and Other Essays”, p.53, Courier Corporation

If you meet a sectary, or a hostile partisan, never recognize the dividing lines; but meet on what common ground remains,--if onlythat the sun shines, and the rain rains for both; the area will widen very fast, and ere you know it the boundary mountains, on which the eye had fastened, have melted into air.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Rain, Eye, Air
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “Nature and Other Essays”, p.69, Courier Corporation

A man is a beggar who only lives to the useful, and, however he may serve as a pin or rivet in the social machine, cannot be saidto have arrived at self-possession.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Men, Self, Society
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.399

When private men shall act with original views, the lustre will be transferred from the actions of kings to those of gentlemen.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Kings, Men, Views
Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.171, Harvard University Press

We owe to genius always the same debt, of lifting the curtain from the common, and showing us that divinities are sitting disguised in the seeming gang of gypsies and peddlars.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Genius, Sitting, Debt
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2004). “A Dream Too Wild: Emerson Meditations for Every Day of the Year”, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

Is not, indeed, every man a student, and do not all things exist for the student's behoof?

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Men, Students, All Things
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870). “The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.46, Рипол Классик

The philanthropists inquire whether Transcendentalism does not mean sloth: they had as lief hear that their friend is dead, as that he is a Transcendentalist; for then is he paralyzed, and can never do anything for humanity.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mean, Humanity, Sloth
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2016). “Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - The transcendentalist”, p.13, Editora Dracaena

We fetch fire and water, run about all day among the shops and markets, and get our clothes and shoes made and mended, and are thevictims of these details, and once in a fortnight we arrive perhaps at a rational moment.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Running, Fire, Shoes
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alfred Riggs Ferguson, Jean Ferguson Carr (1987). “The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.357, Harvard University Press

All forms of government symbolize an immortal government, common to all dynasties and independent of numbers, perfect where two men exist, perfect where there is only one man.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Independent, Men, Two
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1851). “Essays, lectures and orations”, p.260

Housekeeping is not beautiful; it cheers and raises neither the husband, the wife, nor the child; neither the host nor the guest;it oppresses women. A house kept to the end of prudence is laborious without joy; a house kept to the end of display is impossible to all but a few women, and their success is dearly bought.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Beautiful, Cheer, Children
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870). “Society and Solitude: Twelve Chapters”, p.93, London S. Low, Son & Marston 1870.

The piety of the Hebrew prophets purges their grossness. The circumcision is an example of the power of poetry to raise the low and offensive.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Symbolism, Example, Circumcision
Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.209, Harvard University Press

A man in a cave or in a camp, a nomad, will die with no more estate than the wolf or the horse leaves.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Horse, Men, Dying
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1871). “Society and Solitude and Other Essays”, p.19

I look on Sculpture as history. I do not think the Apollo and the Jove impossible in flesh and blood. Every trait the artist recorded in stone, he had seen in life, and better than his copy.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Artist, Thinking, Blood
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “Essays and English Traits by Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.202, Cosimo, Inc.

The god or hero of the sculptor is always represented in a transition from that which is representable to the senses, to that which is not.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Hero, Transition, Sculpture
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1851). “Essays, lectures and orations”, p.83

A right rule for a club would be, Admit no man whose presence excludes any one topic. It requires people who are not surprised andshocked, who do and let do, and let be, who sink trifles, and know solid values, and who take a great deal for granted.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Men, People, Would Be
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2495, Delphi Classics

It is always a practical difficulty with clubs to regulate the laws of election so as to exclude peremptorily every social nuisance. Nobody wishes bad manners. We must have loyalty and character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Loyalty, Character, Law
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2495, Delphi Classics

A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school,preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always like a cat falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He walks abreast with his days and feels no shame in not "studying a profession," for he does not postpone his life, but lives already.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Team, Fall, School
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.129, Penguin

Popularity is for dolls.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Dolls, Popularity
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2000). “Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.820, Modern Library

Everything that is popular, it has been said, deserves the attention of philosophers: and this is for the obvious reason, that although it may not be of any worth in itself, yet it characterizes the people.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
People, Attention, May
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1851). “Essays, lectures and orations”, p.443

Nobody is glad in the gladness of another, and our system is one of war, of an injurious superiority. Every child of the Saxon race is educated to wish to be first. It is our system; and a man comes to measure his greatness by the regrets, envies, and hatreds of his competitors.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Children, Regret, War
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Ernest Spiller, Alfred Riggs Ferguson, Wallace E. Williams, Joseph Slater (1987). “The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Representative men: seven lectures”, p.13, Harvard University Press

It is easy to carp at colleges, and the college, if he will wait for it, will have its own turn. Genius exists there also, but will not answer a call of a committee of the House of Commons. It is rare, precious, eccentric, and darkling.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
College, House, Waiting

Oxford is a little aristocracy in itself, numerous and dignified enough to rank with other estates in the realm; and where fame and secular promotion are to be had for study, and in a direction which has the unanimous respect of all cultivated nations.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Respect, Oxford, Aristocracy
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.354, Penguin

The university must be retrospective. The gale that gives direction to the vanes on all its towers blows out of antiquity.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Blow, Giving, Towers
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.356, Penguin

I do not speak with any fondness but the language of coolest history, when I say that Boston commands attention as the town whichwas appointed in the destiny of nations to lead the civilization of North America.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Destiny, Boston, Civilization
Ralph Waldo Emerson, John H. Woods, James Elliot Cabot (1887). “The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: A memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson”

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