Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes - Page 52

• To clothe the fiery thought
  In simple words succeeds,
  For still the craft of genius is
  To mask a king in weeds.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Weed, Kings, Simple

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1979). “Emerson's Literary Criticism”, p.85, U of Nebraska Press

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• Men consort in camp and town
  But the poet dwells alone.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Men, Poetry

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Poems”, p.152, The Floating Press

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• The world still wants its poet-priest, a reconciler, who shall not trifle with Shakspeare the player, nor shall grope in graves with Swedenborg the mourner; but who shall see, speak, and act, with equal inspiration. For knowledge will brighten the sunshine; right is more beautiful than private affection; and love is compatible with universal wisdom.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Beautiful, Inspiration, Sunshine

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1850). “Representative Men: Seven Lectures”, p.162

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• Much of the wisdom of the world is not wisdom, and the most illuminated class of men are no doubt superior to literary fame, and are not writers.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wisdom, Men, Class

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.171, Penguin

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• 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

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• It is the delight of vulgar talent to dazzle and to bind the beholder. But true genius seeks to defend us from itself. True geniuswill not impoverish, but will liberate, and add new sense. If a wise man should appear in our village, he would create, in those who conversed with him, a new consciousness of wealth, by opening their eyes to unobserved advantages; he would establish a sense of immovable equality, calm us with assurances that we could not be cheated; as every one would discern the checks and guarantees of condition.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wise, Wisdom, Eye

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1544, Delphi Classics

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• When life has been well spent, age is a loss of what it can well spare,--muscular strength, organic instincts, gross bulk, and works that belong to these. But the central wisdom, which was old in infancy, is young in fourscore years, and dropping off obstructions, leaves in happy subjects the mind purified and wise.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wise, Loss, Infancy Is

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume VIII: Letters and Social Aims”, p.183, Harvard University Press

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• Society always consists, in greatest part, of young and foolish persons. The old, who have seen through the hypocrisy of the courts and statesmen, die, and leave no wisdom to their sons. They believe their own newspaper, as their fathers did at their age.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Father, Believe, Son

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2009). “The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.381, Modern Library

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• Men have come to speak of the revelation as somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead. The injury to faith throttles the preacher; and the goodliest of institutions becomes an uncertain and inarticulate voice.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  God, Faith, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.10, Graphic Arts Books

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• Men are so charmed with valor that they have pleased themselves with being called lions, leopards, eagles and dragons, from the animals contemporary with us in the geologic formations.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Courage, Men, Animal

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870). “Society and Solitude: Twelve Chapters”, p.206, London S. Low, Son & Marston 1870.

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• There is a persuasion in the soul of man that he is here for cause, that he was put down in this place by the Creator to do the work for which he inspires him, that thus he is an overmatch for all antagonists that could combine against him.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  God, Courage, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2508, Delphi Classics

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• Who does not sometimes envy the good and the brave, who are no more to suffer from the tumults of the natural world, and await with curious complacency the speedy term of his own conversation with finite nature?

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Courage, Envy, Brave

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1367, Delphi Classics

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• If your friend has displeased you, you shall not sit down to consider it, for he has already lost all memory of the passage, and has doubled his power to serve you, and, ere you can rise up again, will burden you with blessings.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Friendship, Memories, Blessing

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1456, Delphi Classics

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• A divine person is the prophecy of the mind; a friend is the hope of the heart.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Friendship, Hope, Heart

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.507, Library of America

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• The measure of action is the sentiment from which it proceeds. The greatest action may easily be one of the most private circumstance.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  May, Action, Circumstances

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.144

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• The world leaves no track in space, and the greatest action of man no mark in the vast idea.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Ideas, Space

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

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• 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

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• We are amphibious creatures, weaponed for two elements, having two sets of faculties, the particular and the catholic.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Two, Catholic, Humanity

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.264, Harvard University Press

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• The life of man is a self-evolving circle, which, from a ring imperceptibly small, rushes on all sides outwards to new and largercircles, and that without end.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Self, Circles

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.404, Library of America

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• Let a man learn to look for the permanent in the mutable and fleeting; let him learn to bear the disappearance of things he was wont to reverence; without losing his reverence; let him learn that he is here, not to work, but to be worked upon; and that, though abyss open under abyss, and opinion displace opinion, all are at last contained in the Eternal Cause.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Looks, Fleeting

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1851). “Essays, lectures and orations”, p.396

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• Idealism sees the world in God. It beholds the whole circle of persons and things, of actions and events, of country and religion,not as painfully accumulated, atom after atom, act after act, in an aged creeping Past, but as one vast picture, which God paints on the instant eternity, for the contemplation of the soul.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  God, Country, Past

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ronald A. Bosco, Joel Myerson (2015). “Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.60, Harvard University Press

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• With each divine impulse the mind rends the thin rinds of the visible and finite, and comes out into eternity, and inspires and expires its air. It converses with truths that have always been spoken in the world, and becomes conscious of a closer sympathy with Zeno and Arrian, than with persons in the house.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Air, House, Inspire

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2006). “Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected Essays, Lectures and Poems”, p.180, Bantam Classics

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• The true thrift is always to spend on the higher plane; to invest and invest, with keener avarice, that he may spend in spiritualcreation, and not in augmenting animal existence. Nor is the man enriched, in repeating the old experiments of animal sensation; nor unless through new powers and ascending pleasures he knows himself by the actual experience of higher good to be already on the way to the highest.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Money, Animal, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations”, p.362

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• Wild liberty develops iron conscience. Want of liberty, by strengthening law and decorum, stupefies conscience.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Freedom, Law, Iron

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Ernest Spiller, Alfred Riggs Ferguson, Joseph Slater, Jean Ferguson Carr (1971). “The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays, second series”, p.124, Harvard University Press

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• The counting-room maxims liberally expounded are laws of the Universe. The merchant's economy is a coarse symbol of the soul's economy. It is, to spend for power, and not for pleasure.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Money, Law, Soul

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1872). “Representative men. English traits. Conduct of life”, p.381

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