Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes - Page 130

• Why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe?

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Past, Dry Bones, Generations

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.32, Penguin

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• The present is an edifice which God cannot rebuild.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Edifice

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• He who has acquired the ability, may wait securely the occasion of making it felt and appreciated, and know that it will not loiter.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Waiting, May, Appreciated

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.435

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• We grizzle every day. I see no need of it. Whilst we converse with what is above us, we do not grow old, but grow young.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Age, Needs, Young

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.183, Penguin

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• Men are like Geneva watches with crystal faces, which expose the whole movement.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Watches, Faces

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.409

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• Moller, in his Essay on Architecture, taught that the building which was fitted accurately to answer its end would turn out to be beautiful, though beauty had not been intended. I find the like unity in human structures rather virulent and pervasive.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Beautiful, Unity, Answers

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.425, Harvard University Press

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• The narrow sectarian cannot read astronomy with impunity. The creeds of his church shrivel like dried leaves at the door of the observatory.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Doors, Church, Astronomy

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2623, Delphi Classics

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• The lover of letters loves power too.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Letters, Lovers, Power Of Love

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2489, Delphi Classics

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• There are dull and bright, sacred and profane, coarse and fine egotists. It is a disease that, like influenza, falls on all constitutions. In the distemper known to physicians as chorea, the patient sometimes turns round, and continues to spin slowly in one spot. Is egotism a metaphysical varioloid of this malady?

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Fall, Physicians, Dull

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2000). “Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.801, Modern Library

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• Ennui shortens life, and bereaves the day of its light.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Light, Ennui

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1851). “Essays, lectures and orations”, p.455

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• There is genius as well in virtue as in intellect. 'Tis the doctrine of faith over works.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Doctrine, Genius, Virtue

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1886). “The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations...”

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• God knows that all sorts of gentlemen knock at the door; but whenever used in strictness and with any emphasis, the name will be found to point at original energy.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Names, Doors, Gentleman

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2009). “The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.343, Modern Library

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• The flowering of civilization is the finished man, the man of sense, of grace, of accomplishment, of social power--the gentleman.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Civilization, Grace

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.3070, Delphi Classics

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• Our globe discovers its bidden virtues, not only in heroes and arch-angels, but in gossips and nurses.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Hero, Angel, Nurse

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• We are disgusted by gossip; yet it is of importance to keep the angels in their proprieties.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Angel, Gossip, Disgusted

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations”, p.403

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• I grieve that grief can teach me nothing, nor carry me one step into real nature.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Real, Grief, Grieving

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2009). “The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.309, Modern Library

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• Hither rolls the storm of heat;
  I feel its finer billows beat
  Like a sea which me infolds;
  Heat with viewless fingers moulds,
  Swells, and mellows, and matures,
  Paints, and flavors, and allures,
  Bird and brier inly warms,
  Still enriches and transforms,
  Gives the reed and lily length,
  Adds to oak and oxen strength,
  Transforming what it doth infold,
  Life out of death, new out of old.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Sea, Oxen, Giving

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.182, Delphi Classics

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• The heroic soul does not sell its justice and its nobleness. It does not ask to dine nicely and to sleep warm. The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough. Poverty is its ornament. It does not need plenty, and can very well abide its loss.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Hero, Sleep, Loss

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Emerson's Essays: Top Essays”, p.76, 谷月社

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• There is a property in the horizon which no man has, but he whose eyes can integrate all the parts,--that is, the poet.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Eye, Men, Horizon

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Ernest Spiller, Alfred Riggs Ferguson, Joseph Slater, Jean Ferguson Carr (1971). “The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Nature, addresses, and lectures”, p.9, Harvard University Press

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• Lawyers are a prudent race though not very fond of liberty.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Race, Liberty, Prudent

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Joel Porte (1982). “Emerson in His Journals”, p.413, Harvard University Press

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• Morality is the object of government.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Government, Morality, Objects

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.679, Harvard University Press

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• Do not fear to put novels into the hands of young people as an occasional holiday experiment, but above all, good poetry in all kinds,--epic, tragedy, lyric. If we can touch the imagination, we serve them; they will never forget it.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Holiday, Epic, Hands

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• Behold the Sea,
  The opaline, the plentiful and strong,
  Yet beautiful as is the rose in June,
  Fresh as the trickling rainbow of July;
  Sea full of food, the nourisher of kinds,
  Purger of earth, and medicine of men;
  Creating a sweet climate by my breath,
  Washing out harms and griefs from memory,
  And, in my mathematic ebb and flow,
  Giving a hint of that which changes not.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Beautiful, Sweet, Strong

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.241, Delphi Classics

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• Age, like woman, requires fit surroundings.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Age, Fit, Surroundings

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1971). “The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude”, p.161, Harvard University Press

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• When we see a special reformer we feel like asking him, What right have you, sir, to your own virtue? Is virtue piecemeal?

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Special, Asking, Philanthropy

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