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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.

“Genius always finds itself a century too early.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Intelligence

All Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Best

“Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Knowledge

“Men are what their mothers made them.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Men

“In the morning a man walks with his whole body in the evening, only with his legs.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Morning

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Best

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

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life

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

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Good

“All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trust

“Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great

“To be great is to be misunderstood.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great

“We do not yet possess ourselves, and we know at the same time that we are much more.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Time

“A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life

“The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Time

“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life

“Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature

“Our faith comes in moments our vice is habitual.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Faith

“Genius always finds itself a century too early.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Intelligence

“A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friendship

“Great geniuses have the shortest biographies.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great

“Power and speed be hands and feet.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Power