Ralph Waldo Emerson

Essayist, Philosopher, Poet

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a 19th-century American essayist and philosopher known for his ideas on individualism and nature, particularly in his work 'Self-Reliance.'

Born
May 25, 1803
Died
April 27, 1882
Quotes
4.2K
Rank
#45

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Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes (page 193 of 211)

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"If we suddenly plant our foot, and say, - I will neither eat nor drink nor wear nor touch any food or fabric which I do not know to be innocent, or deal with any person whose whole manner of life is not clear and rational, we shall stand still. Whose is so? Not mine; not thine; not his. But I think we must clear ourselves each one by the interrogation, whether we have earned our bread to-day by the hearty contribution of our energies to the common benefit? and we must not cease to tend to the correction of these flagrant wrongs, by laying one stone aright every day."

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"The gentleman is a man of truth."

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"Some men are born to own, and can animate all their possessions. Others cannot: their owning is not graceful; seems to be a compromise of their character: they seem to steal their own dividends."

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"Converse with a mind that is grandly simple, and literature looks like word-catching."

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"The simplicity of the universe is very different from the simplicity of a machine. The simplicity of nature is not that which may be easily read but is inexhaustible. The last analysis can no wise be made."

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"Truth is too simple for us: we do not like those who unmask our illusions."

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"The colleges, while they provide us with libraries, furnish no professors of books; and I think no chair is so much needed."

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"One of the benefits of a college education is to show the boy its little avail."

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"Of all tools, an observatory is the most sublime. . . . What is so good in a college as an observatory? The sublime attaches to the door and to the first stair you ascent, that this is the road to the stars."

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"This knot of nature is so well tied that nobody was ever cunning enough to find the two ends."

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"A man's style is his mind's voice. Wooden minds, wooden voices."

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"Only that mind draws me which I cannot read."

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"It was a pleasure and a privilege to walk with him [H.D. Thoreau]. He knew the country like a fox or a bird, and passed through it as freely by paths of his own."

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"The world always had the same bankrupt look, to foregoing ages as to us."

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"Throb thine with Nature's throbbing breast."

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"My good hoe as it bites the ground revenges my wrongs, and I have less lust to bite my enemies. In the smoothing the rough hillocks, I smooth my temper."

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"He is a good man who can receive a gift well."

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"Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our own spontaneous expression with good humored inflexibility whether the whole cry of voices is on the other side."

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"A good symbol is the best argument, and is a missionary to persuade thousands."

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