Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes About Silence

• Let us be silent — so we may hear the whisper of the gods.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Life, God, Angel

  "Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson".

• Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Fitness, Eye, Exercise

• You think that your silence on certain topics, perhaps in the face of injustice, or unkindness, or mean-spiritedness, causes others to reserve judgement of you. Far otherwise; your silence utters very loud: you have no oracle to speak, no wisdom to offer, and your fellow men have learned that you cannot help them. Doth not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice? We would be well to do likewise.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Kindness, Mean, Men

• I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Church Service, Silence

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1969). “Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume VII: 1838-1842”, p.175, Harvard University Press

• We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Life, Wise, Animal

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alfred Riggs Ferguson, Jean Ferguson Carr (1987). “The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.160, Harvard University Press

• We live in succession, in division, in parts and particles. Meantime, within man, is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal One.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wise, Men, Silence

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alfred Riggs Ferguson, Jean Ferguson Carr (1987). “The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.160, Harvard University Press

• Painting was called silent poetry and poetry speaking painting.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Pain, Poetry, Silence

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2415, Delphi Classics

• We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal ONE.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wise, Silence, Soul

  "Natural Abundance: Ralph Waldo Emerson's Guide to Prosperity".

• Real action is in silent moments.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Real, Silence, Action

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alfred Riggs Ferguson, Jean Ferguson Carr (1987). “The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.93, Harvard University Press

• The silence that accepts merit as the most natural thing in the world is the highest applause.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Acceptance, Silence, World

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “Self-Reliance and Other Essays”, p.115, Courier Corporation

• By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
  Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
  Here once the embattled farmers stood,
  And fired the shot heard round the world.
  The foe long since in silence slept;
  Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
  And Time the ruined bridge has swept
  Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
  On this green bank, by this soft stream,
  We set to-day a votive stone;
  That memory may their deed redeem,
  When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Memories, Spring, Sleep

  "Concord Hymn" l. 1 (1837)

• To give money to a sufferer is only a come-off. It is only a postponement of the real payment, a bribe paid for silence, a creditsystem in which a paper promise to pay answers for the time instead of liquidation. We owe to man higher succors than food and fire. We owe to man.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Real, Men, Fire

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2442, Delphi Classics

• True friends are two people who are comfortable sharing silence together.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  True Friend, Two, People

• Beside all the small reasons we assign, there is a great reason for the existence of every extant fact; a reason which lies grandand immovable, often unsuspected behind it in silence.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Lying, Silence, Facts

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1175, Delphi Classics

• Good as is discourse, silence is better and shames it.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Silence, Shame, Discourse

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1387, Delphi Classics

• A man is reputed to have thought and eloquence; he cannot, for all that, say a word to his cousin or his uncle. They accuse his silence with as much reason as they would blame the insignificance of a dial in the shade. In the sun it will mark the hour. Among those who enjoy his thought, he will regain his tongue.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Cousin, Uncles, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.350, Library of America

• Let us not look east and west for materials of conversation, but rest in presence and unity. A just feeling will fast enough supply fuel for discourse, if speaking be more grateful than silence. When people come to see us, we foolishly prattle, lest we be inhospitable. But things said for conversation are chalk eggs. Don't say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Grateful, Eggs, People

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “The Later Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1843-1871”, p.369, University of Georgia Press

• The eloquence of one stimulates all the rest, some up to the speaking-point, and all others to a degree that makes them good receivers and conductors, and they avenge themselves for their enforced silence by increased loquacity on their return.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Silence, Return, Degrees

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1971). “The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude”, p.30, Harvard University Press

• Silence is a solvent that destroys personality, and gives us leave to be great and universal.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Giving, Silence, Personality

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.426, Library of America

• Speech is better than silence; silence is better than speech.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Silence, Speech, Silence Is

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1851). “Essays, lectures and orations”, p.274

• There is a certain wisdom of humanity which is common to the greatest men with the lowest, and which our ordinary education oftenlabors to silence and obstruct.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Education, Wisdom, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.167, Penguin

• The path of things is silent. Will they suffer a speaker to go with them?

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Silence, Suffering, Path

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2009). “The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.298, Modern Library

• Good as is discourse, silence is better, and shames it. The length of the discourse indicates the distance of thought betwixt the speaker and the hearer. If they were at a perfect understanding in any part, no words would be necessary thereon. If at one in all parts, no words would be suffered.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Distance, Perfect, Silence

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.192, Harvard University Press

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