- Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

All the mistakes I make arise from forsaking my own station and trying to see the object from another person's point of view.

Often a certain abdication of prudence and foresight is an element of success.

The great majority of men are bundles of beginnings

A mind might ponder its thought for an epoch, and not gain so much self-knowledge as the passion of love shall teach in a day.

Every man is eloquent once in his life.

In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows.

Imagination is not a talent of some men but is the health of every man.

Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring.

Beware of what you want-for you will get it.

Commit a crime, and the earth is made of glass.

The powers of the Soul are commensurate with its needs.

Knowledge is the only elegance.

All good conversation, manners, and action come from a spontaneity which forgets usages and makes the moment great.

Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is due to the triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it

Enthusiasm is the leaping lightning, not to be measured by the horse-power of the understanding

Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

He who travels in search of something which he has not got, travels away from himself and grows old even in youth among old things.

Everything is made of one hidden stuff.

Let not the tie be mercenary, though the service is measured in money. Make yourself necessary to somebody. Do not make life hard to any.

No man has ever had a point of pride that was not injurious to him.

Every experiment, by multitudes or by individuals, that has a sensual and selfish aim, will fail.

Christianity taught the capacity, the element, to love the All-perfect without a stingy bargain for personal happiness. It taught that to love Him was happiness;--to love Him in others' virtues.

Everything in nature goes by law, and not by luck.

In nature nothing can be given. All things are sold.

One man's justice is another's injustice; one man's beauty another's ugliness; one man's wisdom anpther's folly.

There is always room for a man of force and he makes room for many. Society is a troop of thinkers and the best heads among them take the best places.

A hero is a man who is afraid to run away.

Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense.

Defect in manners is usually the defect of fine perceptions. Elegance comes of no breeding, but of birth.

Art and power will go on as they have done,--will make day out of night, time out of space, and space out of time.

Half a man's wisdom goes with his courage.

Sanity is very rare; every man almost and every woman has a dash of madness.

Every thought which genius and piety throw into the world alters the world.

A man of no conversation should smoke.

We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes.

Music is the poor man's Parnassus.

The world is plentiful with honey, but only the humble bee can collect it.

Our opinions of the world, are confessions of character.

There is no calamity that right words will not begin to redress

A strong person makes the law and custom null before his own will.

We are immersed in beauty, but our eyes have no clear vision.

Everything is beautiful seen from the point of the intellect, or as truth. But all is sour if seen as experience.

We see God face to face every hour, and know the savor of Nature.

I have only one doctrine, the infinitude of the private man.

With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall.

Nature is what you may do. There is much you may not do.

All mankind love a lover.

Philanthropies and charities have a certain air of quackery.

Colleges hate geniuses, just as convents hate saints.

Nature has made up her mind that what cannot defend itself shall not be defended.