Quotes By Ralph Waldo Emerson

The man of genius inspires us with a boundless confidence in our own powers.

It is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under other circumstances.

We are symbols, and inhabit symbols.

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.

Mysticism is the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for an universal one.

Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.

The value of a principle is the number of things it will explain.

There is an optical illusion about every person we meet.

We see God face to face every hour, and know the savor of Nature.

If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground.

Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.

A man is a method, a progressive arrangement; a selecting principle, gathering his like to him; wherever he goes.

We are by nature observers, and thereby learners. That is our permanent state.

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

Pictures must not be too picturesque.

Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.

Manners require time, and nothing is more vulgar than haste.

Reality is a sliding door.

Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant.

The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.

We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body.

Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one's self?

Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force - that thoughts rule the world.

A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.