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Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes about Character - Page 2

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Character is always known. Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls.

Character is always known. Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wall, Character, Native American
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1118, Delphi Classics

But the wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting; that the State must follow, and notlead the character and progress of the citizen; the strongest usurper is quickly got rid of; and they only who build on Ideas, build for eternity; and that the form of government which prevails, is the expression of what cultivation exists in the population which permits it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wise, Character, Government
Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.250, Harvard University Press

Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Real, Character, Society
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Barbara L. Packer, Joseph Slater, Douglas Emory Wilson (2003). “The Conduct of Life”, p.119, Harvard University Press

The State must follow, and not lead, the character and progress of the citizen.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character, Progress, Citizens
Essays, Second Series "Politics" (1844)

It is only when mind and character slumber that the dress can be seen. If the intellect were always awake, and every noble sentiment, the man might go in huckaback or mats, and his dress would be admired and imitated.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character, Mind, Dresses
"The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson".

Conversation is our account of ourselves...Conversation is the vent of character as well as thoughts...It is the laboratory of the student.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character, Students, Conversation

Discontent is want of self-reliance; it is infirmity of will.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character, Self, Want

Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact makes much impression on him, and another none.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character, Faces, Facts
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “Self-Reliance and Other Essays”, p.20, Courier Corporation

Men of character are the conscience of the society to which they belong.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character, Men, Conscience
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1454, Delphi Classics

There is no privacy that cannot be penetrated. No secret can be kept in the civilized world. Society is a masked ball where everyone hides his real character, then reveals it by hiding

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Real, Character, Secret

A man's power to connect his thought with its proper symbol, and so to utter it, depends on the simplicity of his character, that is, upon his love of truth, and his desire to communicate it without loss.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character, Loss, Men
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1851). “Essays, lectures and orations”, p.288

Repose and cheerfulness is the badge of the gentleman; repose in energy.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character, Personality, Gentleman

If you act, you show character; if you sit still, you show it; if you sleep you show it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character, Sleep, Shows
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2008). “The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.51, Penguin

Character is higher than intellect. Thinking is the function; living is the functionary.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character, Thinking, Function
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2004). “A Dream Too Wild: Emerson Meditations for Every Day of the Year”, p.12, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinction. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit. It is like ice, on which no beauty of form, no majesty of carriage, can plead any immunity; they must walk gingerly, according to the laws of ice, or down they must go, dignity and all.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character, Ice, Law
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume VIII: Letters and Social Aims”, p.86, Harvard University Press

Foolish, whenever you take the meanness and formality of that thing you do, instead of converting it into the obedient spiracle ofyour character and aims.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Work, Character, Foolish
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1316, Delphi Classics

It is not what talents or genius a man has, but how he is to his talents, that constitutes friendship and character. The man thatstands by himself, the universe stands by him also.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character, Men, Genius
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.417

But the mark of American merit in painting, in sculpture, in poetry, in fiction, in eloquence, seems to be a certain grace withoutgrandeur, and itself not new but derivative; a vase of fair outline, but empty,--which whoso sees, may fill with what wit and character is in him, but which does not, like the charged cloud, overflow with terrible beauty, and emit lightnings on all beholders.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character, America, Clouds
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.96, Library of America

Remarkable trait in the American Character is the union, not very infrequent, of Yankee cleverness with spiritualism.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character, Yankees, Unions
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Joel Porte (1982). “Emerson in His Journals”, p.378, Harvard University Press

Profound sincerity is the only basis of talent as of character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character, Profound, Talent
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1904). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: With a Biographical Introduction and Notes”

I am at a loss to understand why people hold Miss Austen's novels at so high a rate, which seem to me vulgar in tone, sterile in artistic invention, imprisoned in their wretched conventions of English society, without genius, wit, or knowledge of the world. Never was life so pinched and narrow. ... All that interests in any character [is this]: has he (or she) the money to marry with? ... Suicide is more respectable.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Suicide, Character, Loss
"Emerson: Selected Journals 1841 - 1877" by Lawrence Rosenwald (p. 768), 2010.

All writing is by the grace of God. People do not deserve to have good writing, they are so pleased with bad. In these sentences that you show me, I can find no beauty, for I see death in every clause and every word. There is a fossil or a mummy character which pervades this book. The best sepulchers, the vastest catacombs, Thebes and Cairo, Pyramids, are sepulchers to me. I like gardens and nurseries. Give me initiative, spermatic, prophesying, man-making words.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Book, Writing, Character
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2014). “The Heart of Emerson's Journals”, p.171, Courier Corporation

What the tender and poetic youth dreams to-day, and conjures up with inarticulate speech, is to-morrow the vociferated result of public opinion, and the day after is the character of nations.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Dream, Character, Public Opinion

Do what you know and perception is converted into character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character, Perception, Thrive
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations”, p.234

Gross and obscure natures, however decorated, seem impure shambles; but character gives splendor to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and gray hairs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nature, Character, Hair
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2009). “Nature and Other Essays”, p.118, Courier Corporation

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