There are men who, by their sympathetic attractions, carry nations with them, and lead the activity of the human race.
Ralph Waldo EmersonThe difference between talent and genius is in the direction of the current: in genius, it is from within outward; in talent from without inward.
Ralph Waldo EmersonThe poise of a plant, the bended tree recovering itself from the strong wind, the vital resources of every vegetable and animal, are also demonstrations of the self-sufficing, and therefore self-relying soul. All history from its highest to its trivial passages is the various record of this power.
Ralph Waldo EmersonI 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