Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

God will have life to be real; we will be damned, but it shall be theatrical.

The lover is made happier by his love than the object of his affection.

One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive one.

The most attractive class of people are those who are powerful obliquely, and not by the direct stroke: men of genius, but not yetaccredited: one gets the cheer of their light, without paying too great a tax.

Sentimentalists ... adopt whatever merit is in good repute, and almost make it hateful with their praise. The warmer their expressions, the colder we feel.... Cure the drunkard, heal the insane, mollify the homicide, civilize the Pawnee, but what lessons can be devised for the debauchee of sentiment?

The poorest experience is rich enough for all the purposes of expressing thought

Let not a man guard his dignity, but let his dignity guard him.

It is handsomer to remain in the establishment better than the establishment, and conduct that in the best manner, than to make asally against evil by some single improvement, without supporting it by a total regeneration.

But only that soul can be my friend which I encounter on the line of my own march, that soul to which I do not decline, and which does not decline me, but, native of the same celestial latitude, repeats in its own all my experience.

Pain is superficial, and therefore fear is. The torments of martyrdoms are probably most keenly felt by the by-standers.

How much of human life is lost in waiting.

When a whole nation is roaring patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and the purity of its heart.

The world is emblematic. Parts of speech are metaphors, because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind.

Every great institution is the lengthened shadow of a single man. His character determines the character of the organization.

Therefore is nature ever the ally of Religion: lends her all her pomp and riches to the religious sentiment.

A weed is a plant whose virtue is not yet known.

Power is the first good.

Looking at God instantly reduces our disposition to dissent from our brother.

It is in the stomach of plants that development begins, and ends in the circles of the universe. 'Tis a long scale from the gorilla to the gentleman,--from the gorilla to Plato, Newton, Shakespeare,--to the sanctities of religion, the refinements of legislation, the summit of science, art, and poetry. The beginnings are slow and infirm, but it is an always accelerated march.

Things refuse to be mismanaged for long.

If a man lose his balance, and immerse himself in any trades or pleasures for their own sake, he may be a good wheel or pin, but he is not a cultivated man.

The right eloquence needs no bell to call the people together, and no constable to keep them.

To accomplish excellence or anything outstanding, you must listen to that whisper which is heard by you alone.

A work of art is an abstract or epitome of the world. It is the result or expression of nature, in miniature. For, although the works of nature are innumerable and all different, the result or the expression of them all is similar and single.

If you have a nation of men who have risen to that height of moral cultivation that they will not declare war or carry arms, for they have not so much madness left in their brains, you have a nation of lovers, of benefactors, of true, great, and able men.

The evils of popular government appear greater than they are; there is compensation for them in spirit and energy it awakens.

Plants are the young of the world, vessels of health and vigor; but they grope ever upward towards consciousness; the trees are imperfect men, and seem to bemoan their imprisonment, rooted in the ground.

We must not inquire too curiously into the absolute value of literature. Enough that it amuses and exercises us. At least it leaves us where we were. It names things, but does not add things.

No facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an endless seeker, with no past at my back.

There are people who have an appetite for grief; pleasure is not strong enough and they crave pain. They have mithridatic stomachs which must be fed on poisoned bread, natures so doomed that no prosperity can sooth their ragged and dishevelled desolation.

Skepticism? Yes, but a saint is a skeptic once in twenty-four hours.

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.

Keep the town for occasions, but the habits should be formed in retirement.

This is my wish for you: Comfort on difficult days, smiles when sadness intrudes, rainbows to follow the clouds, laughter to kiss your lips, sunsets to warm your heart, hugs when spirits sag, beauty for your eyes to see, friendships to brighten your being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage to know yourself, patience to accept the truth, Love to complete your life.

We walk alone in the world. Friends, such as we desire, are dreams and fables.

Truly speaking, it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive from another soul. What he announces, I must find true in me, or reject; and on his word, or as his second, be he who he may, I can accept nothing.

Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others.

Pictures must not be too picturesque.

When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.

Nature is not slow to equip us in the prison-uniform of the party to which we adhere.

We do not live an equal life, but one of contrasts and patchwork; now a little joy, then a sorrow, now a sin, then a generous or brave action.

Are you not scared by seeing that the gypsies are more attractive to us than the apostles?

Always scorn appearances and you always may.

You cannot see the mountain near.

Plato says that the punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is, to live under the government of worse men; and the like regret is suggested to all the auditors, as the penalty of abstaining to speak,--that they shall hear worse orators than themselves.

How much better when the whole land is a garden, and the people have grown up in the bowers of a paradise.

But whoso is heroic will always find crises to try his edge.

A garden is like those pernicious machineries which catch a man's coat-skirt or his hand, and draw in his arm, his leg , and his whole body to irresistible destruction.