Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Ralph Waldo Emerson's Quotes


"Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all things are at risk. It is as when a conflagration has broken out in a great city, and no man knows what is safe, or where it will end."--Ralph Waldo Emerson



from Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance":
"We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents."



A friend might well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson



It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, "Always do what you are afraid to do." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson



"The only reward of virtue is virtue." - Ralph Waldo Emerson



Life is eating us up. We all shall be fables presently. Keep cool: it will be all one a hundred years hence. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson



"The less a man thinks or knows about his virtues, the better we like him." - Ralph Waldo Emerson



Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882) _Conduct of Life_ `Worship'
The louder he talked of his honour, the faster we counted our spoons.



"The greatest homage to truth is to use it." - Ralph Waldo Emerson



"In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson



"By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.
 (R. Emerson)"
-- Quoted from a fortune cookie program
(whose author claims, "Actually, stealing IS easier.") [to which I reply, "You think it's easy for me to misconstrue all these misquotations?!?"]



"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)



If the colleges were better, if they really had it, you would need to get the police at the gates to keep order in the inrushing multitude. See in college how we thwart the natural love of learning by leaving the natural method of teaching what each wishes to learn, and insisting that you shall learn what you have no taste or capacity for. The college, which should be a place of delightful labor, is made odious and unhealthy, and the young men are tempted to frivolous amusements to rally their jaded spirits. I would have the studies elective. Scholarship is to be created not by compulsion, but by awakening a pure interest in knowledge. The wise instructor accomplishes this by opening to his pupils precisely the attractions the study has for himself. The marking is a system for schools, not for the college; for boys, not for men; and it is an ungracious work to put on a professor. -- 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 Emerson



The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson



The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. -- Emerson



"Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies." --R. W. Emerson



"Children are all foreigners."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson



"Every hero becomes a bore at last." --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)



"The only way to have a friend is to be one." --Ralph Waldo Emerson



"Men are what their mothers made them." --Ralph Waldo Emerson



"Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis." --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)



"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 with his friendship." --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



Hitch your wagon to a star.









Link:  http://killdevilhill.com/emerson.html