The most active lives have so much routine as to preclude progress almost equally with the most inactive. Ralph Waldo Emerson More Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson More Quotes From Ralph Waldo Emerson Our country, customs, laws, our ambitions, and our notions of fit and fair-all these we never made; we found them ready-made; we but quote from them. What would remain to me if this art of appropriation were derogatory to genius? Every one of my writings has been furnished to me by a thousand different persons, a thousand things; wise and foolish have brought me, without suspecting it, the offering of their thoughts, faculties, and experience. My work is an aggregation of beings taken from the whole of nature. It bears the name of Goethe. Ralph Waldo Emerson wise country art What you set your heart upon, surely shall be yours. Ralph Waldo Emerson heart No reason can be asked or given why the soul seeks beauty. Beauty, in its largest and profoundest sense, is one expression for the universe. God is the all-fair. Truth, and goodness, and beauty, are but different faces of the same All. Ralph Waldo Emerson different-faces soul expression Will is the measure of power. To a great genius there must be a great will. If the thought is not a lamp to the will, does not proceed to an act, the wise are imbecile. He alone is strong and happy who has a will. The rest are herds. He uses; they are used. He is of the Maker; they are of the Made. Will is always miraculous, being the presence of God to men. When it appears in a man he is a hero, and all metaphysics are at fault. Ralph Waldo Emerson strong hero wise It really is considered one of the blessings of previous mates which you could manage being silly with them. Ralph Waldo Emerson mates blessing silly Our prejudices are our robbers, they rob us valuable things in life. People only see what they are prepared to see. Ralph Waldo Emerson things-in-life prejudice people Profound sincerity is the only basis of talent as of character. Ralph Waldo Emerson talent character profound We are as much strangers in nature, as we are aliens from God. We do not understand the notes of birds. The fox and the deer run away from us; the bear and tiger rend us. We do not know the uses of more than a few plants, as corn and the apple, the potato and the vine. Is not the landscape, every glimpse of which hath a grandeur, a face of him? Ralph Waldo Emerson apples running bird The amount of a man's wealth consists in the number of things he can do without. Ralph Waldo Emerson wealth numbers men Make youself necessary to someone. Ralph Waldo Emerson I think no virtue goes with size. Ralph Waldo Emerson size virtue thinking Real men don't conform to the beliefs of others, even when society has concluded on what is good and true, but maintain the integrity of their own mind. Ralph Waldo Emerson real integrity men When a man becomes cultivated, he develops a new respect for who he is. This causes him to be ashamed of his past identification of himself and others according to things, i.e. property. Ralph Waldo Emerson causes men past Every man has a choice between love of truth and love of repose. Love of repose brings him a solid reputation and peaceful life; love of truth keeps him in suspense. A man who loves truth respects the highest law of his being. Ralph Waldo Emerson love-life law men I like my boy with his endless sweet soliloquies and iterations and his utter inability to conceive why I should not leave all my nonsense, business, and writing and come to tie up his toy horse, as if there was or could be any end to nature beyond his horse. And he is wiser than we when [he] threatens his whole threat "I will not love you." Ralph Waldo Emerson horse love-you sweet The flowers talk when the wind blows over them. Ralph Waldo Emerson flower blow wind But we need not fear that we can lose any thing by the progress of the soul. The soul may be trusted to the end. Ralph Waldo Emerson progress soul needs To be great, you must be misunderstood Ralph Waldo Emerson misunderstood A great teacher makes hard things easy. Ralph Waldo Emerson hard easy teacher What a man does, that he has. What has he to do with hope or fear? In himself is his might. Let him regard no good as solid but that which is in his nature, and which must grow out of him as long as he exists. The goods of fortune may come and go like summer leaves; let him scatter them on every wind as the momentary signs of his infinite productiveness. Ralph Waldo Emerson summer wind men
