Ralph Waldo Emerson's Quotes

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) was a renowned American essayist, poet, philosopher, and lecturer. He was a central figure in the Transcendentalist movement, which emphasized the importance of intuition, spirituality, and individualism. Emerson's thought-provoking essays, such as 'Self-Reliance' and 'Nature' explored his belief in the inherent goodness of people and the need for individuals to trust their own instincts and beliefs rather than conforming to societal norms.

Wikipedia Quotes

157 Quotes

"Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Most of the shadows of life are caused by standing in our own sunshine."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It is only when the mind and character slumber that the dress can be seen."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Our strength grows out of our weaknesses."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Imagination is not a talent of some men but is the health of every man."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You become what you think about all day long."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The years teach much which the days never know."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude and into freedom."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Science does not know its debt to imagination."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"When friendships are real, they are not glass threads or frost work, but the solidest things we can know."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A man is usually more careful of his money than he his is principles."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"People do not seem to realise that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The desire for gold is not gold. It is for the means for freedom and benefit."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting some on yourself."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The real and lasting victories are those of peace and not of war."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Little minds have little worries, big minds have no time for worries."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Who you are speaks so loudly, I can't hear what you're saying."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We are always getting ready to live but never living."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We are by nature observers, and thereby learners. That is our permanent state."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I do not wish more external goods—neither possessions, nor honors, nor powers, nor persons. The gain is apparent; the tax is certain."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Life is a journey, not a destination."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It is one of the blessings of old friends is that you can afford to be stupid with them."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It is not the length of life, but the depth."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"What your heart thinks is great, is great. The soul’s emphasis is always right."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"No great man ever complains of want of opportunity."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Make the most of yourself….for that is all there is of you."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The first wealth is health."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one's self?"

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"God enters by a private door into every individual."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Be silly. Be honest. Be kind."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Nature is reckless of the individual. When she has points to carry, she carries them."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The last change in our point of view gives the whole world a pictorial air."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Knowledge is the antidote to fear."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Hitch your wagon to a star."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Economy does not consist in saving the coal, but in using the time while it burns."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The only way to have a friend is to be one."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The reward of a thing well done is having done it."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We must be our own before we can be another’s."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Beauty without expression is boring."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We cannot overstate our debt to the past, but the moment has the supreme claim."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The earth laughs in flowers."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In the morning, a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only in his legs."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A great man is always willing to be little."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We are rich through only what we give and poor only through what we refuse."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The love that you withhold is the pain that you carry."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Good men must not obey the laws too well."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"To be great is to be misunderstood."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"All mankind love a lover."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Wise men put their trust in ideas and not in circumstances."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Character is higher than intellect… A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Beauty is an outward gift, which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it is refused."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Men love to wonder; that is the seed of science."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Win as if you were used to it; lose as if you enjoyed it for a change."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short in all management of human affairs."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is the best of all."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There is creative reading as well as creative writing."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Self-trust is the first secret of success."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A good indignation brings out all one's powers."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learned would not miss."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The ancestor of every action is a thought."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The older you get, the older you want to get."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Character is higher than intellect."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The age of a woman doesn't mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one’s own sunshine."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"He cannot be happy and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above time."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"What you are comes to you."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Doing well is the result of doing good. That's what capitalism is all about."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Manners require time and nothing is more vulgar than haste."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"As soon as there is life, there is danger."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We are a puny and fickle folk. Avarice, hesitation, and following are our diseases."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We aim above the mark to hit the mark."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Make yourself necessary to somebody."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"People only see what they are prepared to see."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In skating over thin ice, our safety is speed."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Every artist was first an amateur."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Every man I meet is in some way my superior."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The greatest gift is a portion of thyself."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Some books leave us free and some books make us free."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"How much of human life is lost in waiting."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"People that seem so glorious are all show; underneath, they are like everyone else."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The secret in education lies in respecting the student."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There is a tendency for things to right themselves."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A man’s years should not be counted until he has something else to count."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"As we grow old, the beauty steals inward."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"People destined to meet will do so, apparently by chance, at precisely the right moment."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Shallow men believe in luck or in circumstance. Strong men believe in cause and effect."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"One of the most beautiful compensations in life is that no person can help another without helping themselves."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"All is riddle and the key to a riddle is another riddle."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Imagination is a very high sort of seeing."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"All the good of nature is the soul’s, and may be had, if paid for in nature’s lawful coin, that is, by labor which the heart and the head allow."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Throw a stone into the stream and the ripples that propagate themselves are the beautiful type of all influence."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"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

Explore More Quotes 📚

Andy (anders) Sporring

Want to Save Quotes?

Glasp is a social web highlighter that people can highlight and organize quotes and thoughts from the web, and access other like-minded people’s learning.