Waldo Emerson Quotes
When a man says to me, "I have the intensest love of nature," at once I know that he has none.
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
Ever the words of the gods resound; But the porches of man's ear seldom in this low life's round are unsealed, that he may hear.
Cities give us collision. 'Tis said, London and New York take the nonsense out of a man.
There is a kind of latent omniscience, not only in every man, but in every particle.
A man finds room in the few square inches of the face for the traits of all his ancestors; for the expression of all his history, and his wants.
The sower may mistake and sow his peas crookedly; the peas make no mistake, but come up and show his line.
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 map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs.
The first thing a great person does is make us realize the insignificance of circumstance.
Give no bounties: make equal laws: secure life and prosperity and you need not give alms.
The efforts which we make to escape from our destiny only serve to lead us into it.
There are men too superior to be seen except by a few, as there are notes too high for the scale of most ears.
The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode.
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.
Homeopathy is insignificant as an act of healing, but of great value as criticism on the hygeia or medical practice of the time.
If a man will kick a fact out of the window, when he comes back he finds it again in the chimney corner.
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.
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.
He is a good man, who can receive a gift well. We are either glad or sorry at a gift, and both emotions are unbecoming.
The finest and noblest ground on which people can live is truth; the real with the real; a ground on which nothing is assumed.
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.
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.
As men's prayers are a disease of the will, so are their creeds a disease of the intellect.
Go forth into the busy world and love it. Interest yourself in its life, mingle kindly with its joys and sorrows.
Ideas must work through the brains and the arms of good and brave men or they are no better than dreams.
