- Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

He who knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the plants, the waters, the heavens, and how to come at these enchantments - is the rich and royal man.

Ne te quaesiveris extra." (Do not seek for things outside of yourself)

He is great who is what he is from nature, and who never reminds us of others.

Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short in all management of human affairs.

Our spontaneous action is always the best. You cannot, with your best deliberation and heed, come so close to any question as your spontaneous glance shall bring you.

Living without Laughing isn't living. Be silly. Be honest. Be Kind.

Some people are born very far from home.

Life is short but there is always time for courtesy.

A rush of thoughts is the only conceivable prosperity that can come to us.

Our distrust is very expensive.

America is another name for opportunity.

Some of your griefs you have cured, And the sharpest you still have survived, But what torments of grief you've endured From evils that never arrived.

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. We're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside.

Envy is the tax which all distinction must pay.

Nothing great ever happened without enthusiasm.

There are some men above grief and some men below it.

To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all men divine.

We are as much informed of a writer's genius by what he selects as by what he originates.

A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we awake from dreams.

Some people will tell you there is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea.

Pictures must not be too picturesque.

The surest poison is time.

Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.

Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.

The way to write is to throw your body at the mark when your arrows are spent.

The best lightning rod for your protection is your own spine.

Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.

Friendship requires more time than poor busy men can usually command.

Go oft to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path.

Must we always talk for victory, and never once for truth, for comfort, and joy?

The heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic.

Great men, great nations, have not been boasters and buffoons, but perceivers of the terror of life, and have manned themselves to face it.

There are always two parties; the establishment and the movement.

Do what you know and perception is converted into character.

As we are, so we do; and as we do, so is it done to us; we are the builders of our fortunes.

God said, I am tired of kings, I suffer them no more; Up to my ear this morning brings The outrage of the poor.

That which we call sin in others is experiment for us.

My life is not an apology, but a life.

So shall we come to look at the world with new eyes.

It the proof of high culture to say the greatest matters in the simplest way.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is Doomsday.

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.

People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never.

What potent blood hath modest May.

Picture and sculpture are the celebrations and festivities of form.

Solvency is maintained by means of a national debt, on the principle, "If you will not lend me the money, how can I pay you?"

Wealth is in applications of mind to nature; and the art of getting rich consists not in industry, much less in saving, but in a better order, in timeliness, in being at the right spot.

Give all to love; Obey thy heart.

He takes men out of time and makes them feel eternity.

The line of beauty is the line of perfect economy.