Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes About Philosophy

• The secret in education lies in respecting the student.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Education, Teacher, Philosophy

• Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force - that thoughts rule the world.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Art

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2630, Delphi Classics

• 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

  Inspirational, Graduation, Philosophy

  'Essays' (1841) 'Self-Reliance'

• The civility of no race can be perfect whilst another race is degraded. It is a doctrine alike of the oldest and of the newest philosophy, that man is one, and that you cannot injure any member, without a sympathetic injury to all the members

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Philosophy, Men, Race

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1253, Delphi Classics

• We learn geology the morning after the earthquake.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Art, Morning, Philosophy

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2366, Delphi Classics

• Do not follow where the path may lead.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Graduation, Travel, Adventure

• Art is a jealous mistress; and if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Music, Art, Husband

  1860 The Conduct of Life,'Wealth'.

• In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Art, Work, Philosophy

  1841 Essays: First Series,'Self-Reliance'.

• No performance is worth loss of geniality. 'Tis a cruel price we pay for certain fancy goods called fine arts and philosophy.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Art, Kindness, Philosophy

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations”, p.366

• To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all men divine.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Philosophy, Men, Friendly

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “Self-Reliance and Other Essays”, p.5, Courier Corporation

• Knowledge is the only elegance.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Art, Philosophy, Knowledge

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “The Later Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1843-1871”, p.146, University of Georgia Press

• It does not need that a poem should be long. Every word was once a poem.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Art, Philosophy, Long

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.209, Harvard University Press

• Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Philosophy, Thinking, Tradition

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Ernest Spiller, Alfred Riggs Ferguson, Joseph Slater, Jean Ferguson Carr (1971). “The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Nature, addresses, and lectures”, p.7, Harvard University Press

• Whenever a true theory appears, it will be its own evidence. Its test is, that it will explain all phenomena.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Truth, Philosophy, Tests

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.30, Harvard University Press

• Poetry must be as new as foam and as old as the rock.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Art, Philosophy, Rocks

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph H. Orth, Glen M. Johnson (1994). “The Topical Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.184, University of Missouri Press

• He in whom the love of repose predominates will accept the first creed, the first philosophy, the first political party he meets — most likely his father's. He gets rest, commodity, and reputation; but he shuts the door of truth.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Father, Philosophy, Party

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1400, Delphi Classics

• A man is a god in ruins.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  God, Art, Philosophy

  Nature ch. 8 (1836).

• He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Love, Wise, Philosophy

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Lee Grossman (2005). “A Year with Emerson: A Daybook”, p.140, David R. Godine Publisher

• There is no way to success in art but to take off your coat, grind paint, and work like a digger on the railroad, all day and every day.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Art, Philosophy, Work

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.353

• The philosophy of waiting is sustained by all the oracles of the universe.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Philosophy, Waiting, Oracles

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1975). “Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks: 1848-1851”, p.15, Harvard University Press

• The astonishment of life is the absence of any appearances of reconciliation between the theory and the practice of life.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Philosophy, Practice, Astonishment

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.95

• Live in the fields, and God will give you lectures on natural philosophy every day.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Philosophy, Giving, Tree

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edward Waldo Emerson, Waldo Emerson Forbes (1910). “Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1820-1872 [1876] Ed”

• We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organ of its activity. When we discern justice, when we discern truth, we do nothing by ourselves, but allow a passage to its beams. If we ask whence this comes, if we seek to pry into the soul that causes, all philosophy is at fault. Its presence or its absence is all we can affirm.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Philosophy, Lying, Justice

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2008). “The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.16, Penguin

• A mind might ponder its thought for an epoch, and not gain so much self-knowledge as the passion of love shall teach in a day.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Love, Educational, Philosophy

• Let none presume to measure the irregularities of Michael Angelo or Socrates by village scales.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Art, Philosophy, History

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