Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes About Purpose

• The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Love, Inspirational, Life

• I know of no such unquestionable badge and ensign of a sovereign mind as that of tenacity of purpose.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Mind, Purpose, Sovereign

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1883). “Emerson's Complete Works”

• There is really no insurmountable barrier save your own inherent weakness of purpose.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Weakness, Purpose, Inherent

• Circumstance does not make the man. Circumstance reveals man to himself.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Life, Men, Discovery

• And truly it demands something god like in him who has cast off the common motives of humanity, and has ventured to trust himself for a taskmaster. High be his heart, faithful his will, clear his sight, that he may in good earnest be doctrine, society, law, to himself, that a simple purpose may be to him as strong as iron necessity is to others!

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Strong, Heart, Simple

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

• The right merchant is one who has the just average of faculties we call common sense; a man of a strong affinity for facts, who makes up his decision on what he has seen. He is thoroughly persuaded of the truths of arithmetic. There is always a reason, in the man, for his good or bad fortune in making money. Men talk as if there were some magic about this. He knows that all goes on the old road, pound for pound, cent for cent - for every effect a perfect cause - and that good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Strong, Business

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.368

• A cheerful intelligent face is the end of culture, and success enough. For it indicates the purpose of Nature and wisdom attained.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Happiness, Success, Wisdom

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2009). “The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.656, Modern Library

• Human character evermore publishes itself. The most fugitive deed and word, the intimated purpose, express character.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Character, Deeds And Words, Purpose

• Do your work, but do your thing.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Work, Purpose, Funny Basketball

• Luck is just another word for tenacity of purpose.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Motivational, Luck

• Four snakes gliding up and down a hollow for no purpose that I could see - not to eat, not for love, but only gliding.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Love, Snakes, Gliding

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Joel Porte (1982). “Emerson in His Journals”, p.122, 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

• The poorest experience is rich enough for all the purposes of expressing thought

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Purpose, Rich, Enough

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1979). “Emerson's Literary Criticism”, p.32, U of Nebraska Press

• When I behold a rich landscape, it is less to my purpose to recite correctly the order and superposition of the strata, than to know why all thought of multitude is lost in a tranquil sense of unity.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Knowledge, Order, Unity

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “Nature and Other Essays”, p.28, Courier Corporation

• The crime which bankrupts men and nations is that of turning aside from one's main purpose to serve a job here and there.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Jobs, Men, Here And There

• Science in England, in America, is jealous of theory, hates the name of love and moral purpose. There's revenge for this humanity.What manner of man does science make? The boy is not attracted. He says, I do not wish to be such a kind of man as my professor is.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Education, Revenge, Hate

• The purpose of life seems to be to acquaint a man with himself and whatever science or art or course of action he engages in reacts upon and illuminates the recesses of his own mind. Thus friends seem to be only mirrors to draw out and explain to us ourselves; and that which draws us nearer our fellow man, is, that the deep Heart in one, answers the deep Heart in another, - that we find we have (a common Nature) - one life which runs through all individuals, and which is indeed Divine.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Running, Art, Men

• In our large cities, the population is godless, materialized,--no bond, no fellow-feeling, no enthusiasm. These are not men, but hungers, thirsts, fevers, and appetites walking. How is it people manage to live on,--so aimless as they are? After their peppercorn aims are gained, it seems as if the lime in their bones alone held them together, and not any worthy purpose.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Cities, People

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.187, Graphic Arts Books

• The secret of genius is to suffer no fiction to exist for us; to realize all that we know; in the high refinement of modern life,in arts, in sciences, in books, in men, to exact good faith, reality, and a purpose; and first, last, midst, and without end, to honor every truth by use.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Faith, Art, Truth

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.155

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