Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes About Fate

• Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Success, Determination

• Intellect annuls fate. So far as a man thinks he is free.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wise, Fate, Intelligent

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1859). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: The conduct of life”, p.23

• If you believe in fate, believe in it, at least, for your good.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Believe, Fate, Destiny

• Whatever limits us we call fate.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Attitude, Fate, Limits

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Barbara L. Packer, Joseph Slater, Douglas Emory Wilson (2003). “The Conduct of Life”, p.11, Harvard University Press

• Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Karma, Wise, Fate

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Barbara L. Packer, Joseph Slater, Douglas Emory Wilson (2003). “The Conduct of Life”, p.48, Harvard University Press

• Do you see that kitten chasing so prettily her own tail? If you could look with her eyes, you might see her surrounded with hundreds of figures performing complex dramas, with tragic and comic issues, long conversations, many characters, many ups and downs of fate.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Drama, Character, Cat

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.489, Library of America

• I see it only that thyself is here, and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels and the supreme being shall not be absent from the chamber where thou sittest.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Friends, Art, Hero

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1365, Delphi Classics

• A part of fate is the freedom of man. Forever wells up the impulse of choosing and acting in his soul.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Freedom, Fate, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1859). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: The conduct of life”, p.23

• Fate, then, is a name for facts not yet passed under the fire of thought; for causes which are unpenetrated.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Fate, Destiny, Fire

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2008). “The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.87, Penguin

• We shun the rugged battle of fate where strength is born.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Fate, Battle, Born

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “Self-Reliance and Other Essays”, p.32, Courier Corporation

• The book of nature is the book of fate. She turns the gigantic pages, leaf after leaf never returning one.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Book, Fate, Destiny

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1860). “The Conduct of Life”, p.13

• If we must accept fate we are not less compelled to affirm liberty, the significance of the individual, the grandeur of duty, the power of character.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Character, Fate, Destiny

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.254, Penguin

• We stand against fate, as children stand up against the wall in their father's house, and notch their height from year to year. But when the boy grows to a man, and is master of the house, he pulls down that wall and builds it new and bigger.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Children, Wall, Father

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.265, Penguin

• Go face the fire at sea, or the cholera in your friend's house, or the burglar in your own, or what danger lies in the way of duty, knowing you are guarded by the cherubim of Destiny. If you believe in Fate to your harm, believe it, at least, for your good.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Friendship, Lying, Believe

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.954, Library of America

• What is life but the angle of vision? A man is measured by the angle at which he looks at objects. What is life but what a man is thinking of all day? This is his fate and his employer. Knowing is the measure of the man. By how much we know, so we are.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Fate, Men, Thinking

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.3078, Delphi Classics

• But every jet of chaos which threatens to exterminate us is convertible by intellect into wholesome force. Fate is unpenetrated causes.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Fate, Causes, Chaos

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.265, Penguin

• We can only obey our own polarity.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Fate, Polarity

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Barbara L. Packer, Joseph Slater, Douglas Emory Wilson (2003). “The Conduct of Life”, p.24, Harvard University Press

• Every man beholds his human condition with a degree of melancholy. As a ship aground is battered by the waves, so man, imprisonedin mortal life, lies open to the mercy of coming events.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Lying, Fate, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “Nature and Other Essays”, p.72, Courier Corporation

• The solar system has no anxiety about its reputation, and the credit of truth and honesty is as safe; nor have I any fear that a skeptical bias can be given by leaning hard on the sides of fate, of practical power, or of trade, which the doctrine of Faith cannot down-weigh.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Faith, Truth, Honesty

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Barbara L. Packer, Joseph Slater, Douglas Emory Wilson (2003). “The Conduct of Life”, p.107, Harvard University Press

• Our condition as men is risky and ticklish enough. One can not be sure of himself and his fortune an hour, but he may be whisked off into some pitiable or ridiculous plight.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Fate, Men, Plight

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.337, Harvard University Press

• The bitterest tragic element in life to be derived from an intellectual source is the belief in a brute Fate or Destiny.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Fate, Destiny, Intellectual

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2004). “A Dream Too Wild: Emerson Meditations for Every Day of the Year”, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

• Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;--and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Art, Angel

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.378, Library of America

• In spite of Virtue and the Muse,
  Nemesis will have her dues,
  And all our struggles and our toils
  Tighter wind the giant coils.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Struggle, Fate, Wind

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Poems”, p.212, The Floating Press

• Ah Fate, cannot a man Be wise without a beard? East, West, from Beer to Dan, Say, was it never heard That wisdom might in youth be gotten, Or wit be ripe before 't was rotten?

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wise, Fate, Beer

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.32, Delphi Classics

• Behind every individual closes organization; before him opens liberty,--the Better, the Best. The first and worse races are dead.The second and imperfect races are dying out, or remain for the maturing of the higher. In the latest race, in man, every generosity, every new perception, the love and praise he extorts from his fellows, are certificates of advance out of fate into freedom.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Freedom, Fate, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1982). “Emerson: Selected Essays”, p.360, Penguin

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