Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)
American philosopher, essayist, and poet.
If I could put my hand on the north star, would it be as beautiful? The sea is lovely, but when we bathe in it, the beauty forsakes all the near water. For the imagination and senses cannot be gratified at the same time.
Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others, and this is a gift interred only by the self.
The thing done avails, and not what is said about it. An original sentence, a step forward, is worth more than all the censures.
The Indian who was laid under a curse, that the wind should not blow on him, nor water flow to him, nor fire burn him, is a type of us all. The dearest events are summer-rain, and we the Para coats that shed every drop. Nothing is left us now but death. We look to that with a grim satisfaction, saying, there at least is reality that will not dodge us.
Fear not, then, thou child infirm,
There's no god dare wrong a worm.
I wish to write such rhymes as shall not suggest a restraint, but contrariwise the wildest freedom.
Of what use is genius, if the organ is too convex or too concave and cannot find a focal distance within the actual horizon of human life?
Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime.
A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life: he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days.
What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen.
Nor mourn the unalterable Days
That Genius goes and Folly stays.
None believeth in the soul of man, but only in some man or person old and departed.
Children are all foreigners.
Tomorrow will be like today. Life wastes itself whilst we are preparing to live.
Each man is a hero and an oracle to somebody.
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
'Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakenly meant for his ear.
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
The highest compact we can make with our fellow, is, — "Let there be truth between us two forevermore".
When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart.