Ralph Waldo Emerson

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 he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him.  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Men are what their mothers made them. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Enthusiasm is the leaping lightning, not to be measured by the horse-power of the understanding.  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is no knowledge that is not power.  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

A friend might well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The years teach what the days never know. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hitch your wagon to a star. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something else. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is a happy talent to know how to play. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

War educates the senses, calls into action the will, perfects the physical constitution, brings men into such swift and close collision in critical moments that man measures man. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

All the great speakers were bad speakers first. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Not gold, but only man can make a people great and strong; men who, for truth and honor's sake, stand fast and suffer long. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The high prize of life, the crowning glory of a man is to be born with a bias to some pursuit which finds him in employment and happiness - whether it be to make baskets, or broadswords or canals, or statues, or songs. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The things taught in schools and colleges are not an education, but the means to an education.  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

A friend is a person before whom I may think aloud. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. Many will read the book before one thinks of quoting a passage. As soon as he has done this, that line will be quoted east and west. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please; you can never have both.  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

In self-trust all the virtues are comprehended.  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Free should be the scholar - free and brave. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Classic art was the art of necessity: modern romantic art bears the stamp of caprice and chance. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

To laugh often and much: To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

That which we persist in doing becomes easier - not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The religion that is afraid of science dishonors God and commits suicide. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The only way to have a friend is to be one. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the matter of religion, people eagerly fasten their eyes on the difference between their own creed and yours; whilst the charm of the study is in finding the agreements and identities in all the religions of humanity. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Perpetual modernness is the measure of merit in every work of art. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Go often to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Skill to do comes of doing. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sculpture and painting have the effect of teaching us manners and abolishing hurry. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is a successon of lessons, which must be lived to be understood. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Coolness and absence of heat and haste indicate fine qualities. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it - so fine that we often are on the line and do not know it. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are reformers in the spring and summer, but in autumn we stand by the old. Reformers in the morning, and conservers at night. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The first wealth is health. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Health and appetite impart the sweetness to sugar, bread and meat. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

What I need is someone who will make me do what I can. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

We judge a man's wisdom by his hope. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The sower may mistake and sow his peas crookedly; the peas make no mistake, but come up and show his line.  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the enlightened mind the whole world sparkles and burns. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Imagination is not a talent of some men, but is the health of every man. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.  - Ralph Waldo Emerson