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Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes - Page 157

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Pain, indolence, sterility, endless ennui have also their lesson for you, if you are great.

Pain, indolence, sterility, endless ennui have also their lesson for you, if you are great.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Pain, Suffering, Lessons
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1971). “The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.203, Harvard University Press

Any work looks wonderful to me except the one which I can do.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Looks, Wonderful, Can Do
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1960). “The Journals”

It is sublime to think and say of another, I need never meet, or speak, or write to him: we need not reinforce ourselves, or send tokens of remembrance; I rely on him as on myself: if he did thus and thus, I know it was right.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Trust, Writing, Thinking
Ralph Waldo, Emerson, (2013). “Nature - Conduct of Life”, p.225, Read Books Ltd

No man has a right perception of any truth, who has not been reacted on by it, so as to be ready to be its martyr.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Truth, Men, Perception
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2008). “The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.86, Penguin

O friend, never strike sail to a fear! Come into port greatly, or sail with God the seas.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sea, Port, Strikes
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.379, Library of America

Englands genius filled all measureOf heart and soul, of strength and pleasure,Gave to the mind its emperor,And life was larger than before:Nor sequent centuries could hitOrbit and sum of Shakespeares wit. The men who lived with him becamePoets, for the air was fame.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Heart, Men, Air
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2007). “Poems”, p.228, Cosimo, Inc.

Not gold but only men can makeA people great and strong;Men who for truth and honors sakeStand fast and suffer long. Brave men who work while others sleep,Who dare while others flyThey build a nations pillars deepAnd lift them to the sky.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Strong, Sleep, Men
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “A Nation's Strength”

Genial manners are good, and power of accommodation to any circumstance, but the high prize of life, the crowning fortune of a man is to be born with a bias to some pursuit, which finds him in employment and happiness, -- whether it be to make baskets, or broadswords, or canals, or statutes, or songs. I doubt not this was the meaning of Socrates, when he pronounced artists the only truly wise, as being actually, not apparently so.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wise, Song, Men
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.1090, Library of America

Tell them dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, Then beauty is its own excuse for being: Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose! I never sought to ask, I never knew: But, in my simple ignorance suppose The selfsame power that brought me there brought you.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Beauty, Ignorance, Eye
Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Rhodora”

The miracles of genius always rest on profound convictions which refuse to be analyzed.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Profound, Miracle, Genius
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2630, Delphi Classics

Far or forgot to me is near; Shadow and sunlight are the same; The vanished gods to me appear; And one to me are shame and fame.They reckon ill who leave me out; When me they fly, I am the wings; I am the doubter and the doubt, And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Death, Wings, Hymns
'Brahma' (1867)

The results of life are uncalculated and uncalculable. The years teach much which the days never know. The persons who compose our company, converse, and come and go, and design and execute many things, and somewhat comes of it all, but an unlooked for result. The individual is always mistaken. He designed many things, and drew in other persons as coadjutors, quarrelled with some or all, blundered much, and something is done; all are a little advanced, but the individual is always mistaken. It turns out somewhat new, and very unlike what he promised himself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Years, Design, Experience
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2006). “Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected Essays, Lectures and Poems”, p.243, Bantam Classics

O friend, my bosom said, Through thee alone the sky is arched. Through thee the rose is red; All things through thee take nobler form, And look beyond the earth, The mill-round of our fate appears A sun-path in thy worth. Me too thy nobleness has taught To master my despair; The fountains of my hidden life Are through thy friendship fair.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Friends, Fate, Sky
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2000). “Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.248, Modern Library

A man cannot free himself by any self-denying ordinances, neither by water nor potatoes, nor by violent possibilities, by refusing to swear, refusing to pay taxes, by going to jail, or by taking another man's crops or squatting on his land. By none of these ways can he free himself; no, nor by paying his debts with money; only by obedience to his own genius.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Men, Jail, Self

Though thou loved her as thyself, As a self of purer clay, Tho' her parting dims the day, Stealing grace from all alive, Heartily know, When half-gods go, The gods arrive.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
God, Self, Grace
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1905). “An Emerson Calendar”

Five minutes of today are worth as much to me, as five minutes in the next millennium. Let us be poised, and wise, and our own, today.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Motivational, Wise, Today
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.479, Library of America

Life is girt all round with a zodiac of sciences, the contributions of men who have perished to add their point of light to our sky. ... These road-makers on every hand enrich us. We must extend the area of life and multiply our relations. We are as much gainers by finding a property in the old earth as by acquiring a new planet.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Science, Men, Light
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2017). “Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.214, Broadview Press

We do what we must, and call it by the best names we can, and would fain have the praise of having intended the result which ensues.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Names, Praise, Results
Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.232, Harvard University Press

A bullet had found him, his blood ran out as he cried. No money could save him, so he laid down and died. Ooh, what a lucky man he was.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Men, Blood, Politics

The mind will quote whether the tongue does or not.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mind, Doe, Tongue

Performing on a stool, we've got a sight to make you drool, seven virgins and a mule, keep it cool, keep it cool.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sight, Social Taboos, Mules

Every day, a little sadder, a little madder. Will someone get me a ladder?

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Profound, Ladders, Littles

Steam is no stronger now than it was a hundred years ago, but it is put to better use.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Science, Years, Stronger

All the tools and engines on earth are only extensions of man's limbs and senses.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Men, Tools, Earth

Earth laughs in flowers to see her boastful boys Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs; Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet Clear of the grave.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Flower, Boys, Feet
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.446, Penguin

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