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Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes - Page 94

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A cynic can chill and dishearten with a single word.

A cynic can chill and dishearten with a single word.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Chill, Cynicism, Cynic
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1971). “The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude”, p.157, Harvard University Press

The ornaments of our homes are the friends that visit it

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Home, Ornaments

The light by which we see in this world comes out from the soul of the observer. Wherever any noble sentiment dwelt, it made the faces and houses around to shine. Nay, the powers of this busy brain are miraculous and illimitable.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Light, House, Shining
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2005). “The Selected Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.241, University of Georgia Press

My life is for itself and not for a spectacle.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Self Reliance, Life Is, Reliance
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.120, Penguin

There are not in the world at any one time more than a dozen persons who read and understand Plato:-never enough to pay for an edition of his works; yet to every generation these come duly down, for the sake of those few persons, as if God brought them written in his hand.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Time, Plato, Hands
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1321, Delphi Classics

The world exists, as I understand it, to teach the science of liberty.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thinking, Liberty, World
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “The Later Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1843-1871”, p.341, University of Georgia Press

All good conversation, manners, and action come from a spontaneity which forgets usages and makes the moment great.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Action, Forget, Spontaneity
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.210, Penguin

Women, more than all, are the element and kingdom of illusion. Being fascinated, they fascinate.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Women, Elements, Kingdoms
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1860). “Power, Wealth, Illusions”, p.96

Society is an illusion to the young citizen. It lies before him in rigid repose, with certain names, men, and institutions, rootedlike oak-trees to the centre, round which all arrange themselves the best they can. But the old statesman knows that society is fluid; there are no such roots and centres; but any particle may suddenly become the centre of the movement, and compel the system to gyrate round it, as every man of strong will, like Pisistratus, or Cromwell, does for a time, and every man of truth, like Plato, or Paul, does forever.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Strong, Plato, Lying
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.161, Graphic Arts Books

Defect in manners is usually the defect of fine perceptions. Elegance comes of no breeding, but of birth.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Perception, Birth, Elegance

There is always room for a man of force and he makes room for many. Society is a troop of thinkers and the best heads among them take the best places.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Inspirational, Men, Rooms
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.974, Library of America

For the most part, only the light characters travel. Who are you that have no task to keep you at home?

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Travel, Home, Character
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870). “The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume II”, p.392

There is the illusion of time, which is very deep; who has disposed of it? Mor come to the conviction that what seems the succession of thought is only the distribution of wholes into causal series.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Time, Illusion, Conviction
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.1120, Library of America

We live in a very low state of the world, and pay unwilling tribute to government founded on force. There is not, among the most religious and instructed men of the most religious and civil nations, a reliance on the moral sentiment, and a sufficient belief in the unity of things to persuade them that society can be maintained without artificial restraints, as well as the solar system; or that the private citizen might be reasonable, and a good neighbor, without the hint of a jail or a confiscation.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Religious, Men, Jail
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2006). “Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected Essays, Lectures and Poems”, p.265, Bantam Classics

In nature nothing can be given. All things are sold.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nature, Given, All Things
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2004). “A Dream Too Wild: Emerson Meditations for Every Day of the Year”, p.20, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

It is a greater joy to see the author's author, than himself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Reading, Joy, Greater
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Ernest Spiller, Alfred Riggs Ferguson, Joseph Slater, Jean Ferguson Carr (1971). “The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays, second series”, p.137, Harvard University Press

Nature is a language and every new fact one learns is a new word; but it is not a language taken to pieces and dead in the dictionary, but the language put together into a most significant and universal sense. I wish to learn this language - not that I may know a new grammar, but that I may read the great book which is written in that tongue.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nature, Book, Taken
"Emerson: The Mind on Fire" by Robert D. Richardson, University of California Press, (p. 155), March 6, 1995.

And truly it demands something godlike in him who cast off the common motives of humanity and ventured to trust himself for a taskmaster.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Courage, Humanity, Individuality
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1808). “Select Essays and Poems”, p.51

Men should take their knowledge from the Sun, the Moon and the Stars.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Stars, Moon, Men

But the best read naturalist who lends an entire and devout attention to truth, will see that there remains much to learn of his relation to the world, and that it is not to be learned by any addition or subtraction or other comparison of known quantities, but is arrived at by untaught sallies of the spirit, by a continual self-recovery, and by entire humility.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Knowledge, Humility, Recovery
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2017). “The Best Read Naturalist": Nature Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.130, University of Virginia Press

How can he [today's writer] be honored, when he does not honor himself; when he loses himself in the crowd; when he is no longer the lawgiver, but the sycophant, ducking to the giddy opinion of a reckless public.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Honor, Crowds, Today
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1856). “Representative Men: Seven Lectures ...”, p.265

I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius calls me. I would write on the lintels of the door-post, Whim. I hope that it is somewhat better than whim at last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mother, Brother, Father
"Self-Reliance". Essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson, en.wikisource.org. 1847.

Self-sacrifice is the real miracle out of which all the reported miracles grow. Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect. The louder he talked of his honesty, the quicker we counted the silverware.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Strong, Honesty, Real

The problem of restoring to the world original and eternal beauty is solved by redemption of the soul.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Soul, Redemption, World
Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.70, Harvard University Press

Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief in denying them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Inspirational, Soul, Belief
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1850). “Representative Men: Seven Lectures”, p.110

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