Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson

so much of nature as he is ignorant of,so much of his own mind does not yet posess

If only I have right of seeing In this wilderness of being And from the vision glorious Must come back to my lonely house.

When its errands are noble and adequate, a steamboat bridging the Atlantic between Old and New England, and arriving at its ports with the punctuality of a planet, is a step of man into harmony with nature. The boat at St. Petersburgh, which plies along the Lena by magnetism, needs little to make it sublime. When science is learned in love, and its powers are wielded by love, they will appear the supplements and continuations of the material creation.

evergreen philosophy of Idealism, springing up on American soil.

With a geometry of sunbeams, the soul lays the foundations of nature.

This relation between the mind and matter is not fancied by some poet, but stands in the will of God, and so is free to be known by all men. It appears to men, or it does not appear. When in fortunate hours we ponder this miracle, the wise man doubts, if, at all other times, he is not blind and deaf;

The writer is an explorer. Every step is an advance into a new land.

The things that are really for thee gravitate to thee.

Literature is the effort of man to indemnify himself for the wrongs of his condition. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Es gehört zu den schönsten Entschädigungen in diesem Leben, dass niemand ernstlich versuchen kann, einem anderen zu helfen, ohne sich selbst zu helfen.

Man is timid and apologetic. He is no longer upright. He dares not say "I think", "I am" but quotes some saint or sage. He is ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose. These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are, they exist with God to-day.

We are taught by great actions that the universe is the property of every individual in it.

Who hears me, who understands me, becomes mine, — a possession for all time.

The Purpose-Guided Universe by Bernard Haisch and You Are the Universe by Deepak Chopra and Menas Kafatos.

There are no fixtures in nature. The universe is fluid and volatile. Permanence is but a word of degrees.

In a certain sense, everything is everywhere at all times. For every location involves an aspect of itself in every other location. Thus every spatio-temporal standpoint mirrors the world.

I find a provision in the constitution of the world for the writer or secretary, who is to report the doings of the miraculous spirit of life that everywhere throbs and works.

Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.

Materialists speak of the power of people in masses—nations, societies, classes, institutions. Idealists speak of the power of individuals, measuring people by the strength of spirit they exude. According to idealists, mind is the fundamental reality—the ground of all being—and everything else is its reflection. Everything in nature is an expression of the universal mind.

There seems to be a necessity in spirit to manifest itself in material forms; and day and night, river and storm, beast and bird, acid and alkali, preexist in necessary Ideas in the mind of God, and are what they are by virtue of preceding affections, in the world of spirit. A Fact is the end or last issue of spirit. The visible creation is the terminus or the circumference of the invisible world. Material

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you lived and lived well.

Fully-realized human beings—those in harmony with their Source—are complete in themselves. They don't need anything outside themselves to be made whole.

An actually existent fly is more important than a possibly existent angel.

Every moment instructs, and every object: for wisdom is infused into every form. It has been poured into us as blood; it convulsed us as pain; it slid into us as pleasure; it enveloped us in dull, melancholy days, or in days of cheerful labor; we did not guess its essence, until after a long time.