Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes - Page 49

• History no longer shall be a dull book. It shall walk incarnate in every just and wise man. You shall not tell me by language and titles a catalogue of the volumes you have read. You shall make me feel what periods you have lived.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wise, Book, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.25, Graphic Arts Books

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• Art is a jealous mistress.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Art, Jealous, Mistress

  'The Conduct of Life' (1860) 'Wealth'

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• There are three wants which never can be satisfied: that of the rich, who wants something more; that of the sick, who wants something different; and that of the traveler, who says anywhere but here.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Want Something, Sick, Different

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2368, Delphi Classics

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• As a man thinketh, so is he, and as a man chooseth, so is he.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Decision, A Man Thinketh

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1972). “Early Lectures: 1838-1842”, p.36, Harvard University Press

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• We live in succession, in division, in parts and particles. Meantime, within man, is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal One.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wise, Men, Silence

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alfred Riggs Ferguson, Jean Ferguson Carr (1987). “The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.160, Harvard University Press

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• Valor consists in the power of self-recovery, so that a man cannot have his flank turned, cannot be out-generalled, but put him where you will, he stands.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Recovery, Men, Self

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2008). “The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.70, Penguin

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• It is the quality of the moment, not the number of days, or events, or of actors, that imports.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Numbers, Quality, Actors

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.204, Library of America

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• Men admire the man who can organize their wishes and thoughts in stone and wood and steel and brass.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Organization, Wish

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2499, Delphi Classics

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• The value of a principle is the number of things it will explain.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Numbers, Principles, Values

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2781, Delphi Classics

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• Good poetry could not have been otherwise written than it is. The first time you hear it, it sounds rather as if copied out of some invisible tablet in the Eternal mind than as if arbitrarily composed by the poet.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Poetry, Mind, Sound

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1964). “The Early Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.49, Harvard University Press

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• If there is any period one would desire to be born in, is it not the age of Revolution; when the old and the new stand side by side, and admit of being compared; when the energies of all men are searched by fear and by hope; when the historic glories of the old can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new era?

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Age, Desire

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.73, Penguin

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• A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wall, Thinking, Consistency

  Essays "Self-Reliance" (1841)

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• What is indispensable to inspiration? ...sound sleep and the provocation of a good book or a companion.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Book, Inspiration, Sleep

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1960). “The Journals”

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• A man often pays dear for a small frugality.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Pay, Dear

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.295, Library of America

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• There is always a certain meanness in the argument of conservatism, joined with a certain superiority in its fact.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Facts, Argument, Certain

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.174, Library of America

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• The end of being is to know; and if you say, the end of knowledge is action,-why, yes, but the end of that action again, is knowledge.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Thinking, Action, Ends

  "Emerson: The Mind on Fire". Book by Robert D. Richardson (p. 153), March 6, 1995.

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• As the eye is the best composer, so light is the first of painters. There is no object so foul that intense light will not make beautiful; and the stimulus it affords to the sense, and a sort of infinitude which it hath like space and time, make all matter gay.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Beautiful, Eye, Gay

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.36, Penguin

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• Wise cultivated, genial conversation is the last flower of civilization, and the best result which life has to offer us,--a cup for gods, which has no repentance. Conversation is our account of ourselves. All we have, all we can, all we know, is brought into play, and as the reproduction in finer form, of all our havings.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wise, Flower, Civilization

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.3037, Delphi Classics

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• We want but two or three friends, but these we cannot do without, and they serve us in every thought we think.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Friends, Thinking, Two

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Joel Myerson (2013). “The Selected Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.166, Columbia University Press

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• The true scholar grudges every opportunity of action passed, by, as a loss of power.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Loss, Opportunity, Action

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1106, Delphi Classics

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• Men are not philosophers, but are rather very foolish children, who, by reason of their partiality, see everything in the most absurd manner, and are the victims at all times of the nearest object. There is even no philosopher who is a philosopher at all times. Our experience, our perception is conditioned by the need to acquire in parts and in succession, that is, with every truth a certain falsehood.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Children, Philosophy, Knowledge

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870). “The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.164, Рипол Классик

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• Behind us, as we go, all things assume pleasing forms, as clouds do far off. Not only things familiar and stale, but even the tragic and terrible, are comely, as they take their place in the pictures of memory.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Memories, Clouds, Assuming

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.48, Graphic Arts Books

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• He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wise, Love Is, Looks

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Lee Grossman (2005). “A Year with Emerson: A Daybook”, p.140, David R. Godine Publisher

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• The greatest homage to truth is to use it.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Truth, Use, Truth Is

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• In a virtuous action, I properly am; in a virtuous act, I add to the world; I plant into deserts conquered from Chaos and Nothing, and see the darkness receding on the limits of the horizon.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Darkness, Add, Desert

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1808). “Select Essays and Poems”, p.23

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