Ralph Waldo Emerson

Country United States
Born Wednesday, 25 May 1803
Category
Quotes 131
Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet.
Title Category
This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. Uncategorized
There is properly no history, only biography. Uncategorized
There is no den in the wide world to hide a rogue. Commit a crime and the earth is made of glass. Commit a crime, and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge, and fox, and squirrel. Uncategorized
There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant. Uncategorized
The world belongs to the energetic. Uncategorized
The peril of every fine faculty is the delight of playing with it for pride. Talent is commonly developed at the expense of character, and the greater it grows, the more is the mischief. Talent is mistaken for genius, a dogma or system for truth, ambition for greatest, ingenuity for poetry, sensuality for art. Uncategorized
The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it. Uncategorized
The only way to have a friend is to be one. Uncategorized
The only gift is a portion of thyself. Uncategorized
The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men around to his opinion twenty years later. Uncategorized
The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons. Uncategorized
The life of man is the true romance, which when it is valiantly conduced, will yield the imagination a higher joy than any fiction. Uncategorized
The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own. Uncategorized
The foolish man wonders at the unusual, but the wise man at the usual. Uncategorized
The essence of all jokes, of all comedy, seems to be an honest or well intended halfness; a non performance of that which is pretended to be performed, at the same time that one is giving loud pledges of performance. The balking of the intellect, is comedy and it announces itself in the pleasant spasms we call laughter. Uncategorized
The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization. Uncategorized
The ancestor of every action is a thought. Uncategorized
The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight with a verse given in a happy quotation than in the poem. Uncategorized
That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved. Uncategorized
Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect. Uncategorized