Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

About Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool.

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

There is one other reason for dressing well, namely that dogs respect it, and will not attack you in good clothes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dreams and beasts are two keys by which we find ou the secret of our own nature. They are test objects.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil. It is not for you to choose what he shall know, what he shall do. It is chosen and foreordained and he only holds the key to his own secret.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is a secret which every intellectual man quickly learns, that, beyond the energy of his possessed and conscious intellect, he is capable of a new energy (as of an intellect doubled on itself), by abandonment to the nature of things; that, beside h...

Ralph Waldo Emerson

He in whom the love of repose predominates will accept the first creed, the first philosophy, the first political party he meets — most likely his father's. He gets rest, commodity, and reputation; but he shuts the door of truth.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A day is a miniature eternity.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity,―expensive races,―race living at the expense of race.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature has made up her mind that what cannot defend itself shall not be defended.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The years teach us much, which the days never knew.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

a man only knows what he's experienced

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Faith and love are apt to be spasmodic in the best minds. Men live the brink of mysteries and harmonies into which they never enter, and with their hands on the door-latch they die outside.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sorrow looks back, Worry looks around, Faith looks up

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fame is proof that people are gullible.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I would put myself in the attitude to look in the eye an abstract truth, and I cannot. I blench and withdraw on this side and on that. I seem to know what he meant who said, No man can see God face to face and live.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fear always springs from ignorance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Author Bio

  • NameRalph Waldo Emerson
  • DescriptionAmerican philosopher, essayist, and poet
  • BornMay 25, 1803
  • DiedApril 27, 1882
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPhilosopher; Poet; Writer; Essayist