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Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

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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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.
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Emerson's own best insight into fame is in his essay on Character. "The most dismaying aspect of fame from the point of view of its possessor is not just that fame is generally disproportionate to actual achievement, but that the fame that we first assume to be a reward for work well done becomes instead an impossible promise of about future work. Fame casts an anticipatory chill over current efforts because it awakens expectations that can never fully be met".
From Character
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People do not deserve good writing, they are so pleased with bad.
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When we are young, we spend much time and pains in filling our note-books with all definitions of Religion, Love, Poetry, Politics, Art, in the hope that, in the course of a few years, we shall have condensed into our encyclopaedia the net value of all the theories at which the world has yet arrived. But year after year our tables get no completeness, and at last we discover that our curve is a parabola, whose arcs will never meet.
From Essays
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To fill the hour,—that is happiness; to fill the hour, and leave no crevice for a repentance or an approval.
From Essays: First and Second Series
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Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.
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What can we see, read, acquire, but ourselves. Take the book, my friend, and read your eyes out, you will never find there what I find.
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Of all the ways to lose a person, death is the kindest.
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Always do what you are afraid to do.
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Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
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Life is a series of surprises and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.
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Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.
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The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.
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The first and last lesson of religion is, 'The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are not seen are eternal.' It puts an affront upon nature.
From English Traits
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No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. 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 is what is against it.
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He in whom the love of repose predominates will accept the first creed, the first philosophy, the first political party he meets — most likely his father's. He gets rest, commodity, and reputation; but he shuts the door of truth.
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The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.
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Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.
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Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
From Collected Poems and Translations
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Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
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Hitch your wagon to a star.
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It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
From The Complete Prose Works Of Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Shallow men believe in luck or in circumstance. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
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That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.
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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.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Emerson's own best insight into fame is in his essay on Character. "The most dismaying aspect of fame from the point of view of its possessor is not just that fame is generally disproportionate to actual achievement, but that the fame that we first assume to be a reward for work well done becomes instead an impossible promise of about future work. Fame casts an anticipatory chill over current efforts because it awakens expectations that can never fully be met".
From Character
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
People do not deserve good writing, they are so pleased with bad.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When we are young, we spend much time and pains in filling our note-books with all definitions of Religion, Love, Poetry, Politics, Art, in the hope that, in the course of a few years, we shall have condensed into our encyclopaedia the net value of all the theories at which the world has yet arrived. But year after year our tables get no completeness, and at last we discover that our curve is a parabola, whose arcs will never meet.
From Essays
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
To fill the hour,—that is happiness; to fill the hour, and leave no crevice for a repentance or an approval.
From Essays: First and Second Series
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
What can we see, read, acquire, but ourselves. Take the book, my friend, and read your eyes out, you will never find there what I find.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Of all the ways to lose a person, death is the kindest.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Always do what you are afraid to do.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Life is a series of surprises and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The first and last lesson of religion is, 'The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are not seen are eternal.' It puts an affront upon nature.
From English Traits
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. 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 is what is against it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
He in whom the love of repose predominates will accept the first creed, the first philosophy, the first political party he meets — most likely his father's. He gets rest, commodity, and reputation; but he shuts the door of truth.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
From Collected Poems and Translations
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Hitch your wagon to a star.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
From The Complete Prose Works Of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Shallow men believe in luck or in circumstance. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Emerson's own best insight into fame is in his essay on Character. "The most dismaying aspect of fame from the point of view of its possessor is not just that fame is generally disproportionate to actual achievement, but that the fame that we first assume to be a reward for work well done becomes instead an impossible promise of about future work. Fame casts an anticipatory chill over current efforts because it awakens expectations that can never fully be met".
From Character
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
People do not deserve good writing, they are so pleased with bad.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When we are young, we spend much time and pains in filling our note-books with all definitions of Religion, Love, Poetry, Politics, Art, in the hope that, in the course of a few years, we shall have condensed into our encyclopaedia the net value of all the theories at which the world has yet arrived. But year after year our tables get no completeness, and at last we discover that our curve is a parabola, whose arcs will never meet.
From Essays
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
To fill the hour,—that is happiness; to fill the hour, and leave no crevice for a repentance or an approval.
From Essays: First and Second Series
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
What can we see, read, acquire, but ourselves. Take the book, my friend, and read your eyes out, you will never find there what I find.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Of all the ways to lose a person, death is the kindest.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Always do what you are afraid to do.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Life is a series of surprises and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The first and last lesson of religion is, 'The things that are seen are temporal; the things that are not seen are eternal.' It puts an affront upon nature.
From English Traits
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. 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 is what is against it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
He in whom the love of repose predominates will accept the first creed, the first philosophy, the first political party he meets — most likely his father's. He gets rest, commodity, and reputation; but he shuts the door of truth.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
From Collected Poems and Translations
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Hitch your wagon to a star.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
From The Complete Prose Works Of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Shallow men believe in luck or in circumstance. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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