Waldo Emerson Quotes

The secret is the answer to all that has been, all that is, and all that will ever be.

Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to get out, and such as are out wish to get in?

In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise.

Solitude is impractical and yet society is fatal.

As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods.

Do the thing and you will have the power.

Every hero becomes a bore at last.

To fill the hour──that is happiness.

Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams.

Doing well is the result of doing good. That's what capitalism is all about.

Beauty without expression is boring.

Every mind must make its choice between truth and repose. It cannot have both.

Truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men.

To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.

Be brave enough to do the loving thing.

The mark of a man of the world is absence of pretension.

It requires a great deal of boldness and a great deal of caution to make a great fortune, and when you have it, it requires ten times as much skill to keep it.

Cupid is a casuist, a mystic, and a cabalist,-- Can your lurking thought surprise, And interpret your device, . . . . All things wait for and divine him,-- How shall I dare to malign him?

He that writes to himself writes to an eternal public.

The best of life is conversation, and the greatest success is confidence, or perfect understanding between sincere people.

Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.

So much of our time is spent in preparation, so much in routine, and so much in retrospect, that the amount of each person's genius is confined to a very few hours.

In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

The task ahead of us is never as great as the power behind us.

The forest waves, the morning breaks, The pastures sleep, ripple the lakes, Leaves twinkle, flowers like persons be And life pulsates in rock or tree.

Our fear of death is like our fear that summer will be short, but when we have had our swing of pleasure, our fill of fruit, and our swelter of heat, we say we have had our day.

Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it well and serenely

If you believe in the soul, do not clutch at sensual sweetness before it is ripe on the slow tree of cause and effect.

The ornaments of our homes are the friends that visit it

Of course, money will do after its kind, and will steadily work to unspiritualize and unchurch the people to whom it was bequeathed.

To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.

Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in the seed

Tis curious that we only believe as deeply as we live.

We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing.

A strenuous soul hates cheap success.

Genius is saying what is in your heart, because it's in everyone's heart.

Heaven is large, and affords space for all modes of love and fortitude.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

You never know how you look through other people's eyes.

When you have worn out yourshoes, the strength of the shoe leather has passed into the fiber ofyour body. I measure your health by the number of shoes and hats andclothes you have worn out.

Artists must be sacrificed to their art.

The highest compact we can make with our fellow is - "Let there be truth between us two forevermore."

There was never anything that did not proceed from a thought.

I read your piece on Plato. Holmes, when you strike at a king, you must kill him.

Whatever it is, it's better in the wind.

Being perfectly well-dressed gives a feeling of tranquillity that religion is powerless to bestow.

There is no way to success in art but to take off your coat, grind paint, and work like a digger on the railroad, all day and every day.

The spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aimless; it is not loving; it has no ulterior and divine ends; but is destructive only out of hatred and selfishness.

Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house, a world; and beyond its world a heaven. Know then, that the world exists for you: build, therefore, your own world.