Ralph Waldo Emerson
926 quotes
Biography
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and critical thinking, as well as a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society and conformity.
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."
"For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness."
"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."
"Pictures must not be too picturesque."
"Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art."
"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."
"Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul. Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is separate from us, all which Philosophy distinguishes as the 'Not Me,' that is, both nature and art, all other men and my own body, must be ranked under this name, 'Nature.'"
"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air."
"What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say."
"Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood."
"The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship."
"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."
"I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me."
"Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet."
"In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine."
"All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen."
"Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true."
"It is not the length of life, but the depth."
"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."
"Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed."
"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."
"Make the most of yourself....for that is all there is of you."
"If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads."
"Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."
"A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer."