Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson

Science does not know its debt to imagination. Goethe did not believe that a great naturalist could exist without this faculty.

Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity.

Sooner of later that which is now life shall be poetry, and every fair and manly trait shall add a richer strain to the song.

Speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon-balls and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.

Take egotism out and you would castrate the benefactors.

Tell them dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,Then beauty is its own excuse for beingWhy thou wert there, O rival of the roseI never sought to ask, I never knewBut, in my simple ignorance supposeThe selfsame power that brought me there brought you.

The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight with a verse given in a happy quotation than in the poem.

The angels are so enamoured of the language that is spoken in heaven, that they will not distort their lips with the hissing and unmusical dialects of men, but speak their own, whether there be any who understand it or not.

The best effect of fine persons is felt after we have left their presence.

The education of the will is the object of our existence.

The faith that stand on authority is not faith.

The glory of friendship is not the outstreched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him.

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.

The greatest homage we can pay truth is to use it.

The imbecility of men is always inviting the impudence of power.

The less government we have the better.

The man is only half himself, the other half is his expression.

The moment we indulge our affections, the earth is metamorphosed there is no winter and no night all tragedies, all ennuis, vanish,-all duties even.

The more he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

The next thing to saying a good thing yourself, is to quote one.

The reason why all men honor love is because it looks up, and not down aspires and not despairs.

The reason why men do not obey us is because they see the mud at the bottom of our eye.

The reliance on property is...the want of self-reliance. Men measure the esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is. But a cultivated man becomes ashamed of his property...(Essays)