Poet · American · 1803 – 1882 · 245 quotes
A man is usually more careful of his money than he is of his principles.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Poet · American · 1803 – 1882
It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.
A man is a method, a progressive arrangement; a selecting principle, gathering his like to him; wherever he goes.
Every known fact in natural science was divined by the presentiment of somebody, before it was actually verified.
Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant.
We do not yet possess ourselves, and we know at the same time that we are much more.
The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.
Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.
I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women.
Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.
Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.
Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well.
There is no chance and anarchy in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere.
There is creative reading as well as creative writing.
This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
Great men or men of great gifts you shall easily find, but symmetrical men never.
Every experiment, by multitudes or by individuals, that has a sensual and selfish aim, will fail.
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.
The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war.
The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
I hate the giving of the hand unless the whole man accompanies it.
Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science.
What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.
It is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under other circumstances.
Men admire the man who can organize their wishes and thoughts in stone and wood and steel and brass.
Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one's self?
I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.
Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.
Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.
Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.
In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise.
Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.
Give a boy address and accomplishments and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes where he goes.
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.
No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.
Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.
Mysticism is the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for an universal one.
Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.
A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.
The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode.
The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.
