"It is up to us to give ourselves recognition. If we wait for it to come from others, we feel resentful when it doesn't, and when it does, we may well reject it."
A beautiful form is better than a beautiful face; it gives a higher pleasure than statues or pictures; it is the finest of the fine arts. Ralph Waldo Emerson
A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us. Ralph Waldo Emerson
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. Ralph Waldo Emerson
A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature. Ralph Waldo Emerson
A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before. Ralph Waldo Emerson
A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer. Ralph Waldo Emerson
A man finds room in the few square inches of his face for the traits of all his ancestors; for the expression of all his history, and his wants. Ralph Waldo Emerson
A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Adhere to your own act, and congratulate yourself if you have done somethingstrange and extravagant, and broken the monotony of a decorous age. Ralph Waldo Emerson
All conservatives are such from personal defects. They have been effeminated by position or nature, born halt and blind, through luxury of their parents, and can only, like invalids, act on the defensive. Ralph Waldo Emerson
All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man had taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of you first. Ralph Waldo Emerson
All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen. Ralph Waldo Emerson
All our progress is an unfolding, like the vegetable bud, you have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge, as the plant has root, bud and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason. Ralph Waldo Emerson
All sensible people are selfish, and nature is tugging at every contract to make the terms of it fair. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Art is a jealous mistress, and if a man has a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Be true to your own act and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant to break the monotony of a decorous age. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Beauty is an outward gift, which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Between eighteen and twenty, life is like an exchange where one buys stocks, not with money, but with actions. Most men buy nothing. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. Ralph Waldo Emerson
By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one's self? Ralph Waldo Emerson
Cards were at first for benefits designed, sent to amuse, not to enslave the mind. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Doing well is the result of doing good. That's what capitalism is all about. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Each man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well - he has changed his market-cart into a chariot of the sun. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Each of the arts whose office is to refine, purify, adorn, embellish and grace life is under the patronage of a muse, no god being found worthy to preside over them. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every principle is a war-note. Whoever attempts to carry out the rule of right and love and freedom must take his life in his hand. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Everybody keeps telling me how surprised they are with what I've done. But I'm telling you honestly that it doesn't surprise me. I knew I could do it. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Fear is an instructor of great sagacity, and the herald of all revolutions. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life. Ralph Waldo Emerson
He builded better than he knew; the conscious stone to beauty grew. Ralph Waldo Emerson
He that can heroically endure adversity will bear prosperity with equal greatest of the soul; for the mind that cannot be dejected by the former is not likely to be transported without the latter. Ralph Waldo Emerson
He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, while he who has one enemy shall meet him everywhere. Ralph Waldo Emerson
He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life. Ralph Waldo Emerson
I hate the giving of the hand unless the whole man accompanies it. Ralph Waldo Emerson
I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching. Ralph Waldo Emerson
I suppose every old scholar has had the experience of reading something in a book which was significant to him, but which he could never find again. Sure he is that he read it there, but no one else ever read it, nor can he find it again, though he buy the book and ransack every page. Ralph Waldo Emerson
If a man can... make a better mousetrap, the world will make a beaten path to his door. Ralph Waldo Emerson
If a man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles, or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad, hard-beaten road to his house, tho it be in the woods. Ralph Waldo Emerson
If a man write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbor, tho' he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door. Ralph Waldo Emerson
If the riches of the Indies, or the crowns of all the kingdom of Europe, were laid at my feet in exchange for my love of reading, I would spurn them all. Ralph Waldo Emerson
If the Stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile. Ralph Waldo Emerson
In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs. Ralph Waldo Emerson
In the vaunted works of art, the master-stroke is nature's part. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Intellect annuls Fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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? Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion, it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who, in the midst of the world, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Let every man shovel out his own snow and the whole city will be passable. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Let the stoics say what they please, we do not eat for the good of living, but because the meat is savory and the appetite is keen. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Manners require time, and nothing is more vulgar than haste. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Men achieve a certain greatness unawares, when working to another aim. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Money, which represents the prose of life, and which is hardly spoken of in parlors without an apology, is, in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Music takes us out of the actual and whispers to us dim secrets that startle our wonder as to who we are, and for what, whence, and whereto. Ralph Waldo Emerson
None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Plants are the young of the world, vessels of health and vigor; but they grope ever upward towards consciousness; the trees are imperfect men, and seem to bemoan their imprisonment, rooted in the ground. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Poverty, Frost, Famine, Rain, Disease, are the beadles and guardsmen that hold us to Common Sense. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Property is an intellectual production. The game requires coolness, right reasoning, promptness, and patience in the players. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Some men are born to own, and can animate all their possessions. Others cannot: their owning is not graceful; it seems to be a compromise of their character: they seem to steal their own dividends. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon-balls and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The age of a woman doesn't mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The art of getting rich consists not in industry, much less in saving, but in a better order, in timeliness, in being at the right spot. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The believing we do something when we do nothing is the first illusion of tobacco. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The best effort of a fine person is felt after we have left their presence. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The days come and go like muffled and veiled figures sent from a distant friendly party, but they say nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them as silently away. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The finest and noblest ground on which people can live is truth; the real with the real; a ground on which nothing is assumed. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is the best of all. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The louder he talked of his honor the faster we counted our spoons. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The maker of a sentence launches out into the infinite and builds a road into Chaos and old Night, and is followed by those who hear him with something of wild, creative delight. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The man of genius inspires us with a boundless confidence in our own powers. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The prayer of the farmer kneeling in his field to weed it, the prayer of the rower kneeling with the stroke of his oar, are true prayers heard throughout nature. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader. The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until an equal mind and heart finds and publishes it. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The secret of drunkeness is, that it insulates us in thought, whilst it unites us in feeling. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The senses collect the surface facts of matter... It was sensation; when memory came, it was experience; when mind acted, it was knowledge; when mind acted on it as knowledge, it was thought. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The torpid artist seeks inspiration at any cost, by virtue or by vice, by friend or by fiend, by prayer or by wine. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops, but the kind of man that the country turns out. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The two parties which divide the state, the party of Conservation and that of Innovation, are very old, and have disputed the possession of the world ever since it was made. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The value of a dollar is social, as it is created by society. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The value of a principle is the number of things it will explain. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The whole secret of the teacher's force lies in the conviction that man are convertible. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The wise man always throws himself on the side of his assailants. It is more his interest than it is theirs to find his weak point. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The wise skeptic does not teach doubt but how to look for the permanent in the mutable and fleeting. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The world is full of judgment-days, and into every assembly that a man enters, in every action he attempts, he is gauged and stamped. Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are no days in life so memorable as those which vibrated to some stroke of the imagination. Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are people who have an appetite for grief; pleasure is not strong enough and they crave pain. They have mithridatic stomachs which must be fed on poisoned bread, natures so doomed that no prosperity can sooth their ragged and dishevelled desolation. Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are two classes of poets - the poets by education and practice, these we respect; and poets by nature, these we love. Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance: that imitation is suicide: that he must take himself for better, or for worse. Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us. Ralph Waldo Emerson
There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep. Ralph Waldo Emerson
They can conquer who believe they can. He has not learned the first lesson in life who does not every day surmount a fear. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but, until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Think, and be careful what thou art within; For there is sin in the desire of sin; Think, and be thankful, in a different case; For there is grace in the desire of grace. Ralph Waldo Emerson
This body, full of faults, Has yet one great quality: Whatever it encounters in this temporal life Depends upon one's actions. Ralph Waldo Emerson
This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Those who stay away from the election think that one vote will do no good: 'Tis but one step more to think one vote will do no harm. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thoughts come into our minds by avenues which we never left open, and thoughts go out of our minds through avenues which we never voluntarily opened. Ralph Waldo Emerson
'Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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. Ralph Waldo Emerson
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. Ralph Waldo Emerson
To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and heart of the child. Ralph Waldo Emerson
To the dull mind nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light. Ralph Waldo Emerson
To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all men divine. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Tobacco, coffee, alcohol, hashish, prussic acid, strychnine, are weak dilutions; the surest poison is time. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Traveling is a fool's paradise... I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there besides me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become what he should be. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason. Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are rich only through what we give, and poor only through what we refuse. Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are students of words: we are shut up in schools, and colleges, and recitation-rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing. Ralph Waldo Emerson
We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes. Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered. Ralph Waldo Emerson
What would be the use of immortality to a person who cannot use well a half an hour. Ralph Waldo Emerson
What you do speak so loudly that I cannot hear what you say. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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. Ralph Waldo Emerson
