Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes About Muse

• Health is the first muse, and sleep is the condition to produce it.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Fitness, Health, Sleep

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1875). “Letters and Social Aims”, p.227

• Give all to love: Obey thy heart; Friends, kindred, days, Estate, good fame, Plans, credit, and the Muse,- Nothing refuse.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Heart, Giving, Credit

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert J. Von Frank (2015). “Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Major Poetry”, p.81, Harvard University Press

• Shakespeare possesses the power of subordinating nature for the purposes of expression, beyond all poets. His imperial muse tosses the creation like a bauble from hand to hand, and uses it to embody any caprice of thought that is uppermost in his mind. The remotest spaces of nature are visited, and the farthest sundered things are brought together, by subtle spiritual connection. We are made aware that magnitude of material things is relative, and all objects shrink and expand to serve the passion of the poet.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Mother, Spiritual, Nature

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2011). “Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.238, Penguin

• I honor health as the first Muse.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Art, Honor, Firsts

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1875). “Letters and Social Aims”, p.227

• The delicate muses lose their head if their attention is once diverted. Perhaps if you were successful abroad in talking and dealing with men, you would not come back to your bookshelf and your task. When the spirit chooses you for its scribe to publish some commandment, it makes you odious to men and men odious to you, and you shall accept that loathsomeness with joy. The moth must fly to the lamp, and you must solve those questions though you die.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Successful, Men, Talking

  "Letters and social aims". Inspiration. Book by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1875.

• The richest of all lords is Use,
  And ruddy Health the loftiest Muse.
  Live in the sunshine, swim the sea,
  Drink the wild air's salubrity.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Health, Sunshine, Sea

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1859). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: The conduct of life”, p.243

• The student is to read history actively and not passively; to esteem his own life the text, and books the commentary. Thus compelled, the muse of history will utter oracles as never to those who do not respect themselves.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Book, History, Oracles

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.104, Penguin

• I find it a great and fatal difference whether I court the Muse, or the Muse courts me. That is the ugly disparity between age and youth.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Differences, Age, Ugly

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2014). “The Heart of Emerson's Journals”, p.317, Courier Corporation

• With thought, with the ideal, is immortal hilarity, the rose of joy. Round it all the muses sing.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Rose, Joy, Hilarity

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.328, Library of America

• For, whom the Muses smile upon,
  And touch with soft persuasion,
  His words like a storm-wind can bring
  Terror and beauty on their wing;
  In his every syllable
  Lurketh nature veritable.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wind, Wings, Poetry

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2007). “Poems”, p.137, Cosimo, Inc.

• Virtue runs before the muse,
  and defies her skill;
  she is rapt and doth refuse
  to wait a painter's will.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Running, Art, Skills

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1847). “Poems”, p.192

• There is no architect
  Can build as the Muse can;
  She is skilful to select
  Materials for her plan.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Art, Muse

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Poems”, p.150, The Floating Press

• Health is the first muse, comprising the magical benefits of air, landscape, and bodily exercise on the mind.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Health, Exercise, Air

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1875). “Letters and Social Aims”, p.227

• 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

• I honor health as the first muse, and sleep as the condition of health. Sleep benefits mainly by the sound health it produces; incidentally also by dreams, into whose farrago a divine lesson is sometimes slipped.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Dream, Sleep, Honor

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume VIII: Letters and Social Aims”, p.156, Harvard University Press

• 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

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