Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson with society

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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  • Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • Society always consists in the greatest part, of young and foolish persons.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • Society is a hospital of incurables.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • 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.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • The pest of society are the egotist, they are dull and bright, sacred and profane, course and fine. It is a disease that like the flu falls on all constitutions.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast away our virtues, or what we have always esteemed such, into the same pit that has consumed our grosser vices.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • The world is upheld by the veracity of good men: they make the earth wholesome. They who lived with them found life glad and nutritious. Life is sweet and tolerable only in our belief in such society.
    ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
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  • There is this to be said in favor of drinking, that it takes the drunkard first out of society, then out of the world.
    ― 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:

  • "Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs."
  • "Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events."

When did Ralph Waldo Emerson live?

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