Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam that flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his own thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts they come back to us with a sort of alienated majesty.

A painter told me that nobody could draw a tree without in some sort becoming a tree or draw a child by studying the outlines of its form merely . . . but by watching for a time his motions and plays, the painter enters into his nature and can then draw him at every attitude . . .

A true friend is somebody who can make us do what we can.

Adopt the pace of nature.

All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man had taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of you first.

All men are in some degree impressed by the face of the world; some men even to delight. This love of beauty is taste. Others have the same love in such success that, not content with admiring, they seek to embody it in new forms. The creation of beauty is art.

All our progress is an unfolding, like a vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

Be careful what you set your heart on, for it will surely be yours.

Better to be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo.

By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,Here once the embattled farmers stood,And fired the shot heard round the world.

Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce

Character is what can do without success.

Condense some daily experience into a glowing symbol, and an audience is electrified.

Democracy is morose, and runs to anarchy.

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little course, and you may get your coat soiled or torn What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Do not say things. What you are stands over you the while and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.

Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain.

Do what you know and perception is converted into character.

Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.

Each man has his own vocation his talent is his call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him.

Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm.

Every man I meet is in some way my superior.