Waldo Emerson Quotes

We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body.

Evermore in the world is this marvelous balance of beauty and disgust, magnificence and rats.

Our best thoughts come from others.

There is creative reading as well as creative writing.

The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.

A man is usually more careful of his money than he is of his principles.

Astronomy to the selfish becomes astrology.

As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.

Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events.

You cannot do a kindness too soon.

No matter how often defeated, you are born to victory.

We do not want actions, but men; not a chemical drop of water, but rain; the spirit that sheds and showers actions, countless, endless actions.

I think we must get rid of slavery or we must get rid of freedom.

Every burned book or house enlightens the world; every suppressed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side.

Talent for talent's sake is a bauble and a show. Talent working with joy in the cause of universal truth lifts the possessor to new power as a benefactor.

There are other measures of self-respect for a man, than the number of clean shirts he puts on every day.

The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going

My garden is a forest ledge Which older forest s bound; The banks slope down to the blue lake-edge, Then plunge to depths profound!

The need for a rational consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.

Do what we can, summer will have its flies.

The mass of men worry themselves into nameless graves while here and there a great unselfish soul forgets himself into immortality.

Do not say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders, so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.

Nature is too thin a screen; the glory of the omnipresent God bursts through everywhere

It is much better to learn the elements of geology, of botany, or ornithology and astronomy by word of mouth from a companion than dully from a book.

The only prudence in life is concentration.

Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret.

That man is idle who can do something better.

Poetry must be as new as foam and as old as the rock.

Science does not know its debt to imagination.

It is easy to live for others, everybody does. I call on you to live for yourself.

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

there is no planet, sun, or star could hold you if you but knew what you are.

It does not need that a poem should be long. Every word was once a poem.

Make yourself necessary to somebody.

One can never truly savor success until first tasting adversity.

The desire of gold is not for gold. It is not the love of much wheat, and wool and household stuff. It is the means of freedom and benefit.

Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief in denying them.

The health of the eye demands a horizon.

It is dainty to be sick if you have leisure and convenience for it.

The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor.

I have heard with admiring submission the experience of the lady who declared that the sense of being well dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquility which religion is powerless to bestow.

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding.

If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

Friendship should be surrounded with ceremonies and respects, and not crushed into corners.

For flowers that bloom about our feet; For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet; For song of bird, and hum of bee; For all things fair we hear or see, Father in heaven, we thank Thee!

Every man is as lazy as he dares to be.

To a dull mind all of nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.

I cannot go to the houses of my nearest relatives, because I do not wish to be alone. Society exists by chemical affinity, and not otherwise.