Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes About Greatness

• To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Life, Success

• An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Success, Clever

• Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Motivational, Patience

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1883). “Emerson's complete works [ed. by J.E. Cabot]. Riverside ed”

• Always do what you are afraid to do.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Education, Peace

  'Essays' (1841) 'Heroism'

• Character is higher than intellect... A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Strength, Success

  "The American Scholar". Ralph Waldo Emerson's Oration delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at Cambridge, emersoncentral.com. August 31, 1837.

• Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Simple, Greatness, Simplicity

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.100, Library of America

• A man is what he thinks about all day long.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Life, Positive

• Why should I cumber myself with regrets that the receiver is not capacious? It never troubles the sun that some of his rays fall wide and vain into ungrateful space, and only a small part on the reflecting planet. Let your greatness educate the crude and cold companion.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Regret, Fall, Greatness

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Essays”, p.37, Xist Publishing

• Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Essays "Circles" (1841)

• The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Success, Believe

• A great man is always willing to be little.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Confidence, Spiritual, Integrity

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “Compensation and Self-Reliance”, p.23, Cosimo, Inc.

• The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

• Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Life, Wise, Wisdom

  Essays "Self-Reliance" (1841)

• He is great who is what he is from nature, and who never reminds us of others.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Nature, Greatness

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1850). “Representative Men: Seven Lectures”, p.4

• To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Attitude, Greatness, Heaven

  Ralph Waldo Emerson's Journals, December 20, 1822.

• We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “The Later Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1843-1871”, p.340, University of Georgia Press

• We are very near to greatness: one step and we are safe; can we not take the leap?

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Motivational, Greatness, Safety

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2014). “The Heart of Emerson's Journals”, p.170, Courier Corporation

• Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

• Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Powerful, Greatness, Use

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

• What I must do is all that concerns me, not what people think. This rule,equally arduous in actual and intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Learning, Greatness, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2017). “Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.144, Broadview Press

• A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Love, Inspirational, Motivational

• To be great is to be misunderstood.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Success, Inspiration, Greatness

  Essays "Self-Reliance" (1841)

• As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Dream, Greatness

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bliss Perry (1926). “The Heart of Emerson's Journals”, p.189, Courier Corporation

• A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Courage, Greatness, Practice

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Barbara L. Packer, Joseph Slater, Douglas Emory Wilson (2003). “The Conduct of Life”, p.74, Harvard University Press

• No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Motherhood, Opportunity

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph H. Orth, Glen M. Johnson (1994). “The Topical Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.115, University of Missouri Press

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