Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and critical thinking, as well as a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society and conformity. Friedrich Nietzsche thought he was "the most gifted of the Americans," and Walt Whitman called Emerson his "master".

Quotes

Do what you know and perception is converted into character.
Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.
Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for competitors.
When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
Don't SAY things. What you ARE stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.
The less government we have the better.
A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic.
Being perfectly well-dressed gives a feeling of tranquility that religion is powerless to bestow.
The people are to be taken in very small doses.
We become what we think about all day long.
The more he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines.
Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.
What you are shouts so loud in my ears I cannot hear what you say.
Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others with out getting a few drops on yourself.
What omniscience has music! So absolutely impersonal, yet every sufferer feels his secret sorrow soothed.
When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.
Nothing, at last, is sacred; but the integrity of your own mind.
Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.

‹ Prev

Next ›