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Ralph Waldo Emerson

137 quotes

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. His essays, including "Self-Reliance" and "Nature," champion individuality, freedom, and the inherent goodness of people and nature. He remains one of America's most influential thinkers.

“People disparage knowing and the intellectual life, and urge doing. I am content with knowing, if only I could know.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life

All Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Death comes to all, but great achievements build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Death

“No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great

“Doing well is the result of doing good. That's what capitalism is all about.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Good

“God screens us evermore from premature ideas.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

God

“Our best thoughts come from others.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Best

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great

“Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Beauty

“The method of nature: who could ever analyze it?”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature

“Good men must not obey the laws too well.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Good

“I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Good

“As soon as there is life there is danger.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life

“What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Gardening

“A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we awake from dreams.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dreams

“Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great

“Trust men and they will be true to you treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great

“This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Good

“Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great

“A good indignation brings out all one's powers.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Good

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

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Travel

“The first wealth is health.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fitness