Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson, known professionally as Waldo Emerson, was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth25 May 1803
CountryUnited States of America
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul.
It is only as a man puts off from himself all external support, and stands alone, that I see him to be strong and to prevail.
In the Fiji islands, it appears, cannibalism is now familiar. They eat thier own wives and children. We only devour widows' houses, and great merchants outwit and absorb the substance of small ones, and every man feeds on his neighbor's labor if he can. It is a milder form of cannibalism.
I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional.
The inquiry leads us to that source, at once the essence of genius, of virtue, and of life, which we call Spontaneity or Instinct.
Human beings cannot endure the geological chaos they encounter under the soil of their own gardens.
Knowledge is when you learn something new every day. Wisdom is when you let something go every day.
I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make a valued adviser who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the church. On my saying, What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested, - "But these impulses may be from below, not from above." I replied, 'They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the devil's child, I will live then from the devil.'
Adult males are what their moms designed them.
Others can get in your way temporarily, but only you can get out of your way permanently. Our best thoughts come from others.
A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.
A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace.
The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.
Every experiment, by multitudes or by individuals, that has a sensual and selfish aim, will fail.