Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American poet and philosopher

Lived from: 1803 - 1882

Category: Philosophers | Poets (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited States

Born: 25 may 1803 Died: 27 april 1882

  • 'Tis a superstition to insist on a special diet. All is made at last of the same chemical atoms.
  • Courage charms us, because it indicates that a man loves an idea better than all things in the world, that he is thinking neither of his bed, nor his dinner, nor his money, but will venture all to put in act the invisible thought of his mind.
  • Society is infested by persons who, seeing that the sentiments please, counterfeit the expression of them. These we call sentimentalists - talkers who mistake the description for the thing, saying for having.
  • The studious class are their own victims: they are thin and pale, their feet are cold, their heads are hot, the night is without sleep, the day a fear of interruption - pallor, squalor, hunger, and egotism.
  • Gross and obscure natures, however decorated, seem impure shambles; but character gives splendor to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and gray hairs.
  • That which we call character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. It is conceived of as a certain undemonstrable force, a familiar or genius, by whose impulses the man is guided, but whose counsels he cannot impart.
  • Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding.
  • Man is a shrewd inventor, and is ever taking the hint of a new machine from his own structure, adapting some secret of his own anatomy in iron, wood, and leather, to some required function in the work of the world.
  • The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.
  • The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue; and no genius can long or often utter anything which is not invited and gladly entertained by men around him.
  • Sincerity is the luxury allowed, like diadems and authority, only to the highest rank. Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.
  • Books are the best of things if well used; if abused, among the worst. They are good for nothing but to inspire. I had better never see a book than be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a system.
  • What your heart thinks is great, is great. The soul's emphasis is always right.
  • Nothing is beneath you if it is in the direction of your life.
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  • Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • A day for toil, an hour for sport, but for a friend is life too short.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • 'Tis a superstition to insist on a special diet. All is made at last of the same chemical atoms.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • A beautiful form is better than a beautiful face; it gives a higher pleasure than statues or pictures; it is the finest of the fine arts.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • 'Tis very certain that each man carries in his eye the exact indication of his rank in the immense scale of men, and we are always learning to read it. A complete man should need no auxiliaries to his personal presence.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • A good indignation brings out all one's powers.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • The colleges, while they provide us with libraries, furnish no professors of books; and I think no chair is so much needed.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • By persisting in your path, though you forfeit the little, you gain the great.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • Civilization depends on morality.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • Dear to us are those who love us... but dearer are those who reject us as unworthy, for they add another life; they build a heaven before us whereof we had not dreamed, and thereby supply to us new powers out of the recesses of the spirit, and urge us to new and unattempted performances.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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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.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • Whatever limits us we call fate.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • All the great speakers were bad speaker at first.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • All that I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • Be a little careful about your library. Do you foresee what you will do with it? Very little to be sure. But the real question is, What it will do with you? You will come here and get books that will open your eyes, and your ears, and your curiosity, and turn you inside out or outside in.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • Democracy becomes a government of bullies tempered by editors.
    Journals
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • Friends, such as we desire, are dreams and fables.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • 'Tis the old secret of the gods that they come in low disguises.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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What are the most famous quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson?

The two most famous quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson are:

  • "Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience."
  • "A day for toil, an hour for sport, but for a friend is life too short."

When did Ralph Waldo Emerson live?

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in 1803 and died in the year 1882.