Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes - Page 30

• Greatness is a property for which no man gets credit too soon; it must be possessed long before it is acknowledged.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Greatness, Men, Long

  "Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson".

  7 Copy quote

• Napoleon said of Massena, that he was not himself until the battle began to go against him; then, when the dead began to fall in ranks around him, awoke his powers of combination, and he put on terror and victory as a robe.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Fall, Adversity, Victory

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.117, Harvard University Press

  11 Copy quote

• Our opinions of the world, are confessions of character.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Character, World, Opinion

  9 Copy quote

• The betrothed and accepted lover has lost the wildest charms of his maiden by her acceptance. She was heaven while he pursued her, but she cannot be heaven if she stoops to one such as he!

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Love, Marriage, Acceptance

  13 Copy quote

• Sympathy is a supporting atmosphere, and in it we unfold easily and well.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Sympathy, Atmosphere, Wells

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1960). “The Journals”

  10 Copy quote

• There is a certain satisfaction in coming down to the lowest ground of politics, for we get rid of cant and hypocrisy.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Hypocrisy, Politics, Satisfaction

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870). “The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume II”, p.123

  7 Copy quote

• Pretension may sit still, but cannot act. Pretension never feigned an act of real greatness. Pretension never wrote an Iliad, nordrove back Xerxes, nor christianized the world, nor abolished slavery.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Real, Greatness, World

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1851). “Essays, lectures and orations”, p.73

  16 Copy quote

• Men have looked away from themselves and at things so long that they have come to esteem the religious, learned and civil institutions as guards of property, and they deprecate assaults on these, because they feel them to be assaults on property. They measure their esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Religious, Men, Long

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2016). “Essays”, p.84, Open Road Media

  8 Copy quote

• There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us. 'Tis good to give a stranger a meal, or a night's lodging. 'Tis better to be hospitable to his good meaning and thought, and give courage to a companion. We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the advantage of a good light.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Pain, Attitude, Night

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Barbara L. Packer, Joseph Slater, Douglas Emory Wilson (2003). “The Conduct of Life”, p.104, Harvard University Press

  9 Copy quote

• Power obeys reality, and not appearances; power is according to quality, and not quantity.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Power, Reality, Quality

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “The Later Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1843-1871”, p.315, University of Georgia Press

  4 Copy quote

• The civility of no race can be perfect whilst another race is degraded.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Race, Perfect, Civility

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1253, Delphi Classics

  15 Copy quote

• A day for toil, an hour for sport, but for a friend is life too short.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Life, Friendship, Sports

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Barbara L. Packer, Joseph Slater, Douglas Emory Wilson (2003). “The Conduct of Life”, p.130, Harvard University Press

  7 Copy quote

• Others can get in your way temporarily, but only you can get out of your way permanently. Our best thoughts come from others.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Way

  4 Copy quote

• Man was born to be rich, or to inevitably grow rich, by the use of his faculties: by the union of thought with nature.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Use, Unions

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.368

  8 Copy quote

• Wherever snow falls, or water flows, or birds fly, wherever day and night meet in twilight, wherever the blue heaven is hung by clouds, or sown with stars, wherever are forms with transparent boundaries, wherever are outlets into celestial space, wherever is danger, and awe, and love, there is Beauty, plenteous as rain, shed for thee, and though thou shouldest walk the world over, thou shalt not be able to find a condition inopportune or ignoble.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Beauty, Stars, Rain

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2003). “Nature and Other Writings”, p.177, Shambhala Publications

  10 Copy quote

• There is always safety in valor.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Safety, Valor

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.913, Library of America

  14 Copy quote

• An orator or author is never successful till he has learned to make his words smaller than his ideas.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Success, Learning, Ideas

  8 Copy quote

• Everything in nature is bipolar, or has a positive and a negative pole.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Nature, Science, Bipolar

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2009). “The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.331, Modern Library

  5 Copy quote

• Sugar is not so sweet to the palate as sound to the healthy ear.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Music, Sweet, Healthy

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2886, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• There is one mind common to all individual men. Every man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once admitted to the right of reason is made a freeman of the whole estate. What Plato has thought, he may think; what a saint has felt, he may feel; what at any time has befallen any man, he can understand. Who hath access to this universal mind is a party to all that is or can be done, for this is the only and sovereign agent

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Plato, Party, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.102, Penguin

  11 Copy quote

• To fill the hour──that is happiness.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Happiness, Time Management, Hours

  'Essays. Second Series' (1844) 'Experience'

  12 Copy quote

• A man of no conversation should smoke.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Smoking, Should

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ronald A. Bosco (1982). “The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.20, Harvard University Press

  8 Copy quote

• The book of nature is the book of fate. She turns the gigantic pages, leaf after leaf never returning one.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Book, Fate, Destiny

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1860). “The Conduct of Life”, p.13

  7 Copy quote

• Some books leave us free and some books make us free.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Book, Reading, Books And Reading

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2014). “The Heart of Emerson's Journals”, p.149, Courier Corporation

  23 Copy quote

• The cure for false theology is motherwit. Forget your books and traditions, and obey your moral perceptions at this hour.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Book, Perception, Moral

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations”, p.399

  8 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Henry David Thoreau

Walt Whitman

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Margaret Fuller

Emily Dickinson

Edgar Allan Poe

Herman Melville

Ralph Ellison