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Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes about Creativity

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The two terrors that discourage creativity and creative living are fear of public opinion and undue reverence for one's own consistency.

The two terrors that discourage creativity and creative living are fear of public opinion and undue reverence for one's own consistency.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Creativity, Two, Creative

He who would be a man must therefore be a non-conformist.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Creativity, Men, Innovation

A creative economy is the fuel of magnificence.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Money, Creativity, Creative
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1857). “English Traits”, p.178

That which builds is better than that which is built.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Creativity, Built
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2011). “Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.343, Penguin

A painter told me that nobody could draw a tree without in some sort becoming a tree.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Creativity, Tree, Becoming
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.244, Library of America

There is some reason to believe that when a man does not write his poetry it escapes by other vents through him, instead of the one vent of writing; clings to his form and manners, whilst poets have often nothing poetical about them except their verses.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Believe, Writing, Creativity
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations”, p.389

It never was in the power of any man or any community to call the arts into being. They come to serve his actual wants, never to please his fancy.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Art, Creativity, Men
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2417, Delphi Classics

Because the soul is progressive, it never quite repeats itself, but in every act attempts the production of a new and fairer whole.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Creativity, Soul, Never Quit
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1404, Delphi Classics

But it is impossible that the creative power should exclude itself. Into every intelligence there is a door which is never closed,through which the creator passes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Creativity, Doors, Creative
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “Self-Reliance and Other Essays”, p.87, Courier Corporation

The world is young: the former great men call to us affectionately. We too must write Bibles, to unite again the heavens and the earthly world.

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

Speak as you think, be what you are, pay your debts of all kinds. I prefer to be owned as sound and solvent, and my word as good as my bond, and to be what cannot be skipped, or dissipated, or undermined, to all the eclat in the universe. This reality is the foundation of friendship, religion, poetry, and art.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Art, Creativity, Reality
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.1122, Library of America

We must learn the language of facts. The most wonderful inspirations die with their subject, if he has no hand to paint them to the senses.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Inspirational, Creativity, Hands
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1397, Delphi Classics

It is easy to see that what is best written or done by genius in the world, was no man's work but came by wide social labor, whena thousand wrought like one, sharing the same impulse.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Creativity, Men, Genius
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1621, Delphi Classics

Great genial power, one would almost say, consists in not being original at all; in being altogether receptive; in letting the world do all, and suffering the spirit of the hour to pass unobstructed through the mind.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Creativity, Mind, Suffering
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1979). “Emerson's Literary Criticism”, p.164, U of Nebraska Press

Creative force, like a musical composer, goes on unweariedly repeating a simple air or theme, now high, now low, in solo, in chorus, ten thousand times reverberated, till it fills earth and heaven with the chant.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nature, Creativity, Simple
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.59

Prosperity is something the businessmen created for politicians to take credit for

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Creativity, Credit, Prosperity

Every really able man, in whatever direction he works - a man of large affairs, an inventor, a statesman, an orator, a poet, a painter - if you talk sincerely with him, considers his work, however much admired, as far short of what it should be. What is this Better, this flying Ideal, but the perpetual promise of his Creator?

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Inspiration, Creativity, Men
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.339, Рипол Классик

In our fine arts, not imitation, but creation is the aim... The details, the prose of nature, he should omit, and give us only the spirit and splendour.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Art, Creativity, Giving
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1851). “Essays, lectures and orations”, p.157

Each truth that a writer acquires is a lantern, which he turns full on what facts and thoughts lay already in his mind, and behold, all the mats and rubbish which had littered his garret become precious. Every trivial fact in his private biography becomes an illustration of this new principle, revisits the day, and delights all men by its piquancy and new charm.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Creativity, Men, Illustration
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1396, Delphi Classics

The poet needs a ground in popular tradition on which he may work, and which, again, may restrain his art within the due temperance. It holds him to the people, supplies a foundation for his edifice; and, in furnishing so much work done to his hand, leaves him at leisure, and in full strength for the audacities of his imagination.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Art, Creativity, Hands
Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1619, Delphi Classics

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