- Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode.
Homeopathy is insignificant as an act of healing, but of great value as criticism on the hygeia or medical practice of the time.
When a whole nation is roaring patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and the purity of its heart.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare To die, and leave their children free, Bid Time and Nature gently spare The shaft we raise to them and thee.
There are men too superior to be seen except by a few, as there are notes too high for the scale of most ears.
There is a kind of latent omniscience, not only in every man, but in every particle.
Respect the child. Wait and see the new product of Nature. Nature loves analogies, but not repetitions. Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.
Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential. Without it, he is not yet man. Without it, thought can never ripen into truth.
I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women.
We grant no dukedoms to the few, We hold like rights and shall; Equal on Sunday in the pew, On Monday in the mall. For what avail the plough or sail, Or land, or life, if freedom fail?
Heroism works in contradiction to the voice of mankind and in contradiction, for a time, to the voice of the great and good. Heroism is an obedience to a secret impulse of an individual
The torpid artist seeks inspiration at any cost, by virtue or by vice, by friend or by fiend, by prayer or by wine.
The good writer seems to be writing about himself, but has his eye always on that thread of the Universe which runs through himself and all things.
If a man will kick a fact out of the window, when he comes back he finds it again in the chimney corner.
The finest and noblest ground on which people can live is truth; the real with the real; a ground on which nothing is assumed.
The highest proof of civility is that the whole public action of the State is directed on securing the greatest good of the greatest number.
To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men that is genius.
In spite of warnings, change rarely occurs until the status quo becomes more painful than change. People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.
There is no one who does not exaggerate. In conversation, men are encumbered with personality, and talk too much.
The art of sculpture is long ago perished to any real effect... it is the game of a rude and youthful people, and not the manly labour of a wise and spiritual nation.
The charm of the best courages is that they are inventions, inspirations, flashes of genius.
Everything in creation has its appointed painter or poet and remains in bondage like the princess in the fairy tale 'til its appropriate liberator comes to set it free.
Go forth into the busy world and love it. Interest yourself in its life, mingle kindly with its joys and sorrows.
