Prudence is the virtue of the senses. It is the science of appearances. It is the outmost action of the inward life. Ralph Waldo Emerson More Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson More Quotes From Ralph Waldo Emerson Every discourse is an approximate answer: but it is of small consequence, that we do not get it into verbs and nouns, whilst it abides for contemplation forever. Ralph Waldo Emerson verbs truth forever My companion assumes to know my mood and habit of thought, and we go on from explanation to explanation, until all is said that words can, and we leave matters just as they were at first, because of that vicious assumption. Ralph Waldo Emerson understanding matter goes-on Every word we speak is million-faced or convertible to an indefinite number of applications. If it were not so we could read no book. Your remark would only fit your case, not mine. Ralph Waldo Emerson reading numbers book An answer in words is delusive; it is really no answer to the questions you ask. Ralph Waldo Emerson asks language answers The path of things is silent. Will they suffer a speaker to go with them? Ralph Waldo Emerson silence suffering path For all symbols are fluxional; all language is vehicular and transitive, and is good, as ferries and horses are, for conveyance, not as farms and houses are, for homestead. Ralph Waldo Emerson horse language house The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossil poetry. As the limestone of the continent consists of infinite masses of the shells of animalcules, so language is made up of images or tropes, which now, in their secondary use, have long ceased to remind us of their poetic origin. Ralph Waldo Emerson shells use long Every word was once a poem. Every new relation is a new word. Ralph Waldo Emerson new-words language relation For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency, because for the moment it symbolized the world to the first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture. Ralph Waldo Emerson our-words genius world The history of mankind interests us only as it exhibits a steady gain of truth and right, in the incessant conflict which it records between the material and the moral nature. Ralph Waldo Emerson records gains history There are many faculties in man, each of which takes its turn of activity, and that faculty which is paramount in any period and exerts itself through the strongest nation, determines the civility of that age: and each age thinks its own the perfection of reason. Ralph Waldo Emerson men civilization thinking All inquiry into antiquity, all curiosity respecting the Pyramids, the excavated cities, Stonehenge, the Ohio Circles, Mexico, Memphis,--is the desire to do away this wild, savage, and preposterous There and Then, and introduce in its place the Here and Now. Ralph Waldo Emerson ohio circles cities Let it suffice that in the light of these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its correlative, history isto be read and written. Ralph Waldo Emerson light two history The Times are the masquerade of the eternities; trivial to the dull, tokens of noble and majestic agents to the wise; the receptacle in which the Past leaves its history; the quarry out of which the genius of today is building up the Future. Ralph Waldo Emerson future wise past The whole value of history, of biography, is to increase my self-trust, by demonstrating what man can be and do. Ralph Waldo Emerson self men history But lest I should mislead any when I have my own head and obey my whims, let me remind the reader that I am only an experimenter.Do not set the least value on what I do, or the least discredit on what I do not, as if I pretended to settle any thing as true or false. I unsettle all things. No facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an endless seeker with no Past at my back. Ralph Waldo Emerson true-or-false truth past If I have renounced the search of truth, if I have come into the port of some pretending dogmatism, some new church, some Schelling or Cousin, I have died to all use of these new events that are born out of prolific time into multitude of life every hour. I am as bankrupt to whom brilliant opportunities offer in vain. He has just foreclosed his freedom, tied his hands, locked himself up and given the key to another to keep. Ralph Waldo Emerson cousin truth opportunity The secret of genius is to suffer no fiction to exist for us; to realize all that we know; in the high refinement of modern life,in arts, in sciences, in books, in men, to exact good faith, reality, and a purpose; and first, last, midst, and without end, to honor every truth by use. Ralph Waldo Emerson truth faith art For he that feeds men serveth few; Ralph Waldo Emerson charity truth men Why should you renounce your right to traverse the star-lit deserts of truth, of the premature comforts of an acre, house, and barn? Truth also has its roof, and bed, and board. Ralph Waldo Emerson stars light truth
