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

Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity, is to genius the stern friend, the cold, obscure shelter where moult the wings which will bear it farther than suns and stars. He who should inspire and lead his race must be defended from travelling with the so...

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Colleges hate geniuses, just as convents hate saints.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The power of love, as the basis of a State, has never been tried.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, for love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

To fill the hour──that is happiness.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting some on yourself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Good bye, proud world! I'm going home; Thou art not my friend, and I'm not thine

Ralph Waldo Emerson

If the single man plants himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abides, this huge world will come around to him.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

One idea lights a thousand candles.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

What would be the use of immortality to a person who cannot use well half an hour?

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can offer with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation, but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man is known by the books he reads.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

His heart was as great as the world, but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

You become what you think about all day long.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is a series of surprises and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.

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