Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes About Water

• We fill the hands and nurseries of our children with all manner of dolls, drums and horses, withdrawing their eyes from the plain face and... Nature, the sun and moon, the animals, the water and stones, which should be their toys.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Horse, Children, Eye

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “Self-Reliance and Other Essays”, p.76, Courier Corporation

• By his machines man can dive and remain under water like a shark; can fly like a hawk in the air; can see atoms like a gnat; can see the system of the universe of Uriel, the angel of the sun; can carry whatever loads a ton of coal can lift; can knock down cities with his fist of gunpowder; can recover the history of his race by the medals which the deluge, and every creature, civil or savage or brute, has involuntarily dropped of its existence; and divine the future possibility of the planet and its inhabitants by his perception of laws of nature.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Angel, Men, Sharks

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume VIII: Letters and Social Aims”, p.74, Harvard University Press

• Who are the farmer's servants? ... Geology and Chemistry, the quarry of the air, the water of the brook, the lightning of the cloud, the castings of the worm, the plough of the frost.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Science, Clouds, Air

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2009). “The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.675, Modern Library

• Nature never hurries: atom by atom, little by little, she achieves her work. The lesson one learns from yachting or planting is the manners of Nature; patience with the delays of wind and sun, delays of the seasons, bad weather, excess or lack of water.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Nature, Wind, Weather

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1971). “The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude”, p.70, Harvard University Press

• Wherever snow falls, or water flows, or birds fly, wherever day and night meet in twilight, wherever the blue heaven is hung by clouds, or sown with stars, wherever are forms with transparent boundaries, wherever are outlets into celestial space, wherever is danger, and awe, and love, there is Beauty, plenteous as rain, shed for thee, and though thou shouldest walk the world over, thou shalt not be able to find a condition inopportune or ignoble.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Beauty, Stars, Rain

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2003). “Nature and Other Writings”, p.177, Shambhala Publications

• Polarity, or action and reaction, we meet in every part of nature; in darkness and light; in heat and cold; in the ebb and flow of water; in male and female; in the equation of quantity and quality; in the fluids of the animal body; in the systole an

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Animal, Light, Ebb And Flow

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.137, Penguin

• He who knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the plants, the waters, the heavens, and how to come at these enchantments - is the rich and royal man.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Sweet, Garden, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.154, Graphic Arts Books

• The history of persecution is a history of endeavors to cheat nature, to make water run up hill, to twist a rope of sand.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Running, Nature, Water

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Emerson's Essays: Top Essays”, p.37, 谷月社

• Vivacity, leadership, must be had, and we are not allowed to be nice in choosing. We must fetch the pump with dirty water, if clean cannot be had.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Leadership, Nice, Dirty

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Barbara L. Packer, Joseph Slater, Douglas Emory Wilson (2003). “The Conduct of Life”, p.32, Harvard University Press

• Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Moving, Water, Self Reliance

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1964). “The Early Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.175, Harvard University Press

• The Indian who was laid under a curse, that the wind should not blow on him, nor water flow to him, nor fire burn him, is a type of us all. The dearest events are summer-rain, and we the Para coats that shed every drop. Nothing is left us now but death. We look to that with a grim satisfaction, saying, there at least is reality that will not dodge us.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Summer, Rain, Reality

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.203, Penguin

• If I could put my hand on the north star, would it be as beautiful? The sea is lovely, but when we bathe in it the beauty forsakesall the near water. For the imagination and senses cannot be gratified at the same time.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Beautiful, Stars, Hands

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Barbara L. Packer, Joseph Slater, Douglas Emory Wilson (2003). “The Conduct of Life”, p.161, Harvard University Press

• We come to our own and would make friends with matter, which the ambitious chatter of the schools would persuade us to despise. We can never part with it; the mind loves its old home: as water to our thirst, so is rock, the ground, to our eyes, and hands, and feet. It is firm water: it is cold flame: what health, what affinity!

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Home, School, Eye

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2000). “Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.451, Modern Library

• A man cannot free himself by any self-denying ordinances, neither by water nor potatoes, nor by violent possibilities, by refusing to swear, refusing to pay taxes, by going to jail, or by taking another man's crops or squatting on his land. By none of these ways can he free himself; no, nor by paying his debts with money; only by obedience to his own genius.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Jail, Self

• We do not want actions, but men; not a chemical drop of water, but rain; the spirit that sheds and showers actions, countless, endless actions.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Rain, Men, Water

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1183, Delphi Classics

• Silent rushes the swift Lord
  Through ruined systems still restored,
  Broadsowing, bleak and void to bless,
  Plants with worlds the wilderness;
  Waters with tears of ancient sorrow
  Apples of Eden ripe to-morrow.
  House and tenant go to ground,
  Lost in God, in Godhead found.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  God, Eden, Apples

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1854). “Poems”, p.158

• By fate, not option, frugal Nature gave One scent to hyson and to wall-flower, One sound to pine-groves and to water-falls, One aspect to the desert and the lake. It was her stern necessity : all things Are of one pattern made; bird, beast, and flower, Song, picture, form, space, thought, and character Deceive us, seeming to be many things, And are but one.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Song, Nature, Wall

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Poems”, p.159, The Floating Press

• The rage for road building is beneficent for America, where vast distance is so main a consideration in our domestic politics andtrade, inasmuch as the great political promise of the invention is to hold the Union staunch, whose days already seem numbered by the mere inconvenience of transporting representatives, judges and officers across such tedious distances of land and water.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Distance, Land, America

• Every friend whom not thy fantastic will but the great and tender heart in thee craveth, shall lock thee in his embrace. And this because the heart in thee is the heart of all; not a valve, not a wall, not an intersection is there anywhere in nature, but one blood rolls uninterruptedly in endless circulation through all men, as the water of the globe is all one sea, and, truly seen, its tide is one.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wall, Heart, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.399, Library of America

• Milton says, that the lyric poet may drink wine and live generously, but the epic poet, he who shall sing of the gods, and their descent unto men, must drink water out of a wooden bowl. For poetry is not "Devil's wine," but God's wine.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Wine, Epic

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1425, Delphi Classics

• Cities give not the human senses room enough. We go out daily and nightly to feed the eyes on the horizon, and require so much scope, just as we need water for our bath.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Eye, Cities, Giving

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.542, Library of America

• Well, the world has a million writers. One would think, then, that good thought would be as familiar as air and water, and the gifts of each new hour would exclude the last. Yet we can count all our good books; nay, I remember any beautiful verse for twenty years.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Beautiful, Book, Thinking

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “Nature and Other Essays”, p.77, Courier Corporation

• But hospitality must be for service, and not for show, or it pulls down the host. The brave soul rates itself too high to value itself by the splendor of its table and draperies. It gives what it hath, and all it hath, but its own majesty can lend a better grace to bannocks and fair water than belong to city feasts.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Cities, Giving, Water

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Emerson's Essays: Top Essays”, p.76, 谷月社

• The shows of the day, the dewy morning, the rainbow, mountains, orchards in blossom, stars, moonlight, shadows in still water, andthe like, if too eagerly hunted, become shows merely, and mock us with their unreality.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Morning, Nature, Stars

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.39, Harvard University Press

• We fetch fire and water, run about all day among the shops and markets, and get our clothes and shoes made and mended, and are thevictims of these details, and once in a fortnight we arrive perhaps at a rational moment.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Running, Fire, Shoes

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alfred Riggs Ferguson, Jean Ferguson Carr (1987). “The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.357, Harvard University Press

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