Quotes By Ralph Waldo Emerson

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

Every sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves reading, as it is the sense of France.

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

For every benefit you receive a tax is levied.

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

There is no chance and anarchy in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere.

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

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

Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others.

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

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

Every mind must make its choice between truth and repose. It cannot have both.

It is one of the beautiful compensations in this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

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

Nature hates calculators.

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

The wave of evil washes all our institutions alike.

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

If a man can... make a better mousetrap, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

Good men must not obey the laws too well.

No man ever prayed heartily without learning something.

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

People only see what they are prepared to see.

Hitch your wagon to a star.

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.

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

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

There are other measures of self-respect for a man, than the number of clean shirts he puts on every day.