"Man Thinking must not be subdued by his instruments. Books are for the scholar's idle times. When he can read God directly, the hour is too precious to be wasted in other men's transcripts of their readings."
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
Quote collection
Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes (page 40 of 211)
4.2K quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Wisdom is like electricity. There is no permanently wise man, but men capable of wisdom, who, being put into certain company, or other favorable conditions, become wise for a short time, as glasses rubbed acquire electric power for a while."
"Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams."
"Slavery is an institution for converting men into monkeys."
"There is no way to success in art but to take off your coat, grind paint, and work like a digger on the railroad, all day and every day."
"Being perfectly well-dressed gives a feeling of tranquillity that religion is powerless to bestow."
"It is one light which beams out of a thousand stars. It is one soul which animates all men."
"Cupid is a casuist, a mystic, and a cabalist,-- Can your lurking thought surprise, And interpret your device, . . . . All things wait for and divine him,-- How shall I dare to malign him?"
"The mark of a man of the world is absence of pretension."
"When you have worn out yourshoes, the strength of the shoe leather has passed into the fiber ofyour body. I measure your health by the number of shoes and hats andclothes you have worn out."
"Beauty without expression is boring."
"Every hero becomes a bore at last."
"It requires a great deal of boldness and a great deal of caution to make a great fortune, and when you have it, it requires ten times as much skill to keep it."
"We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing."
"To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom."
"To help the young soul, to add energy, inspire hope, and blow the coals into a useful flame; to redeem defeat by new thought and firm action, this, though not easy, is the work of divine men."
"The ornaments of our homes are the friends that visit it"
"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."
"In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty."
"Truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men."