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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Philosopher

Ralph Waldo Emerson, a central figure in the American Transcendentalist movement, celebrated individualism, self-reliance, and the power of nature and intuition. His quotes reflect his profound insights on personal growth, moral courage, and the pursuit of a meaningful life. Together, they offer timeless inspiration to think independently, embrace one’s potential, and live with integrity and purpose.
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All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.
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XXX
Topic: Religion
A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking.
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XXX
Topic: Religion
This time, like all times, is a very good time - if we but know what to do with it
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XXX
Topic: Motivational
Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting some on yourself.
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XXX
Topic: Happiness
A great man is always willing to be little.
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XXX
Topic: Philosophical
If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and adore.
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XXX
Topic: Inspirational
Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.
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Topic: Inspirational
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.
From Nature and Selected Essays
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XXX
Topic: Religion
the mystic must be steadily told,—All that you say is just as true without the tedious use of that symbol as with it. Let us have a little algebra, instead of this trite rhetoric,—universal signs, instead of these village symbols,—and we shall both be gainers. The history of hierarchies seems to show that all religious error consisted in making the symbol too stark and solid, and was at last nothing but an excess of the organ of language.
From The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson
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XXX
Topic: Religion
The religions of the world are the ejaculations of a few imaginative man.
From Self-Reliance and Other Essays
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XXX
Topic: Religion
I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to 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 them from the devil.
From Self-Reliance and Other Essays
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XXX
Topic: Religion
Colleges hate geniuses, just as convents hate saints.
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XXX
Topic: Funny
Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it.
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XXX
Topic: Philosophical
He thought it happier to be dead, To die for Beauty, than live for bread.
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XXX
Topic: Happiness
If there is any period one would desire to be born in, ⎯ is it not the age of Revolution; when
the old and the new stand side by side, and admit of being compared; when the energies of all men are searched by fear and by hope; when the historic glories of the old, can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new era? This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
From The American Scholar Self-Reliance Compensation
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XXX
Topic: Hope
Sorrow looks back, Worry looks around, Faith looks up
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XXX
Topic: Life
The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil.
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XXX
Topic: Education
the poor man, whom the law does not allow to take an ear of corn when starving, nor a pair of shoes for his freezing feet, is allowed to put his hand into the pocket of the rich, and say, You shall educate me, not as you will, but as I will...
From Education: An Essay and Other Selections
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XXX
Topic: Education
There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.
From Self Reliance
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XXX
Topic: Inspirational
There is one other reason for dressing well, namely that dogs respect it, and will not attack you in good clothes.
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XXX
Topic: Funny
Religion is the perception of that power which constructs the greatness of the centuries out of the paltriness of the hours.
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XXX
Topic: Philosophical, Religion
This outlook, one that said that American history must be the history of nature speaking through men, not of men shaping nature, became the single most powerful force in American intellectual life in the nineteenth century and shaped some of America's greatest works of literature, such as Moby Dick, Leaves of Grass and Walden, as well as generating an American school of philosophy , to be furthered by William James and John Dewey.
From Nature and Other Essays
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XXX
Topic: Philosophical
It is not the length of life, but the depth.
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XXX
Topic: Life
The South-wind brings
Life, sunshine and desire,
And on every mount and meadow
Breathes aromatic fire;
But over the dead he has no power,
The lost, the lost, he cannot restore;
And, looking over the hills, I mourn
The darling who shall not return.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Death
All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Religion
A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Religion
This time, like all times, is a very good time - if we but know what to do with it
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Motivational
Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting some on yourself.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Happiness
A great man is always willing to be little.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Philosophical
If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and adore.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Inspirational
Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Inspirational
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.
From Nature and Selected Essays
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Religion
the mystic must be steadily told,—All that you say is just as true without the tedious use of that symbol as with it. Let us have a little algebra, instead of this trite rhetoric,—universal signs, instead of these village symbols,—and we shall both be gainers. The history of hierarchies seems to show that all religious error consisted in making the symbol too stark and solid, and was at last nothing but an excess of the organ of language.
From The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Religion
The religions of the world are the ejaculations of a few imaginative man.
From Self-Reliance and Other Essays
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Religion
I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to 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 them from the devil.
From Self-Reliance and Other Essays
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Religion
Colleges hate geniuses, just as convents hate saints.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Funny
Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Philosophical
He thought it happier to be dead, To die for Beauty, than live for bread.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Happiness
If there is any period one would desire to be born in, ⎯ is it not the age of Revolution; when
the old and the new stand side by side, and admit of being compared; when the energies of all men are searched by fear and by hope; when the historic glories of the old, can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new era? This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
From The American Scholar Self-Reliance Compensation
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Hope
Sorrow looks back, Worry looks around, Faith looks up
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Life
The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Education
the poor man, whom the law does not allow to take an ear of corn when starving, nor a pair of shoes for his freezing feet, is allowed to put his hand into the pocket of the rich, and say, You shall educate me, not as you will, but as I will...
From Education: An Essay and Other Selections
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Education
There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.
From Self Reliance
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Inspirational
There is one other reason for dressing well, namely that dogs respect it, and will not attack you in good clothes.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Funny
Religion is the perception of that power which constructs the greatness of the centuries out of the paltriness of the hours.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Philosophical, Religion
This outlook, one that said that American history must be the history of nature speaking through men, not of men shaping nature, became the single most powerful force in American intellectual life in the nineteenth century and shaped some of America's greatest works of literature, such as Moby Dick, Leaves of Grass and Walden, as well as generating an American school of philosophy , to be furthered by William James and John Dewey.
From Nature and Other Essays
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Philosophical
It is not the length of life, but the depth.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Life
The South-wind brings
Life, sunshine and desire,
And on every mount and meadow
Breathes aromatic fire;
But over the dead he has no power,
The lost, the lost, he cannot restore;
And, looking over the hills, I mourn
The darling who shall not return.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Death
All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Religion
A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Religion
This time, like all times, is a very good time - if we but know what to do with it
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Motivational
Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting some on yourself.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Happiness
A great man is always willing to be little.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Philosophical
If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and adore.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Inspirational
Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Inspirational
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.
From Nature and Selected Essays
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Religion
the mystic must be steadily told,—All that you say is just as true without the tedious use of that symbol as with it. Let us have a little algebra, instead of this trite rhetoric,—universal signs, instead of these village symbols,—and we shall both be gainers. The history of hierarchies seems to show that all religious error consisted in making the symbol too stark and solid, and was at last nothing but an excess of the organ of language.
From The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Religion
The religions of the world are the ejaculations of a few imaginative man.
From Self-Reliance and Other Essays
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Religion
I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to 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 them from the devil.
From Self-Reliance and Other Essays
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Religion
Colleges hate geniuses, just as convents hate saints.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Funny
Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Philosophical
He thought it happier to be dead, To die for Beauty, than live for bread.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Happiness
If there is any period one would desire to be born in, ⎯ is it not the age of Revolution; when
the old and the new stand side by side, and admit of being compared; when the energies of all men are searched by fear and by hope; when the historic glories of the old, can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new era? This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.
From The American Scholar Self-Reliance Compensation
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Hope
Sorrow looks back, Worry looks around, Faith looks up
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Life
The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Education
the poor man, whom the law does not allow to take an ear of corn when starving, nor a pair of shoes for his freezing feet, is allowed to put his hand into the pocket of the rich, and say, You shall educate me, not as you will, but as I will...
From Education: An Essay and Other Selections
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Education
There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.
From Self Reliance
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Inspirational
There is one other reason for dressing well, namely that dogs respect it, and will not attack you in good clothes.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Funny
Religion is the perception of that power which constructs the greatness of the centuries out of the paltriness of the hours.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Philosophical, Religion
This outlook, one that said that American history must be the history of nature speaking through men, not of men shaping nature, became the single most powerful force in American intellectual life in the nineteenth century and shaped some of America's greatest works of literature, such as Moby Dick, Leaves of Grass and Walden, as well as generating an American school of philosophy , to be furthered by William James and John Dewey.
From Nature and Other Essays
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Philosophical
It is not the length of life, but the depth.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Life
The South-wind brings
Life, sunshine and desire,
And on every mount and meadow
Breathes aromatic fire;
But over the dead he has no power,
The lost, the lost, he cannot restore;
And, looking over the hills, I mourn
The darling who shall not return.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
XXX
Topic: Death
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