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 There are no days in life so memorable as those which vibrate to some stroke of the imagination. Ralph Waldo Emerson imagination memorable life So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low, 'Thou must,' The youth whispers, 'I can. Ralph Waldo Emerson youth dust men Truly speaking, it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive from another soul. What he announces, I must find true in me, or reject; and on his word, or as his second, be he who he may, I can accept nothing. Ralph Waldo Emerson accepting soul may The escape from all false ties; courage to be what we are; and love of what is simple and beautiful; independence, and cheerful relation, these are the essentials. Ralph Waldo Emerson essentials simple beautiful There is more in every person's soul than we think. Ralph Waldo Emerson persons soul thinking Sincerity is the highest complement you can pay Ralph Waldo Emerson complement sincerity pay We, as we read, must become Greeks, Romans, Turks, priest and king, martyr and executioner; must fasten these images to some reality in our secret experience, or we shall learn nothing rightly. Ralph Waldo Emerson greek kings reality At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closet door and say,—'Come out unto us.' But keep thy state; come not into their confusion. The power men possess to annoy me I give them by a weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through my act. Ralph Waldo Emerson doors men children Men do what is called a good action, as some piece of courage or charity, much as they would pay a fine in expiation of daily non-appearance on parade. Their works are done as an apology or extenuation of their living in the world. I do not wish to expiate, but to live. My life is not an apology, but a life. Ralph Waldo Emerson apology wish men The sinew and heart of man seem to be drawn out, and we are become timorous desponding whimperers. We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death, and afraid of each other. Ralph Waldo Emerson fortune heart men But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things. Ralph Waldo Emerson rays stars men I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways. Ralph Waldo Emerson self-reliance rude way Heaven walks among us ordinarily muffled in such triple or tenfold disguises that the wisest are deceived and no one suspects the days to be gods. Ralph Waldo Emerson deceived heaven thinking When we are young, we spend much time and pains in filling our note-books with all definitions of Religion, Love, Poetry, Politics, Art, in the hope that, in the course of a few years, we shall have condensed into our encyclopaedia the net value of all the theories at which the world has yet arrived. But year after year our tables get no completeness, and at last we discover that our curve is a parabola, whose arcs will never meet. Ralph Waldo Emerson pain book art Solitude is impractical and yet society is fatal. Ralph Waldo Emerson solitude It is a luxury to be understood. Ralph Waldo Emerson luxury understood understanding Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous. Ralph Waldo Emerson ridiculous inspiration giving There is no privacy that cannot be penetrated. No secret can be kept in the civilized world. Society is a masked ball where everyone hides his real character, then reveals it by hiding Ralph Waldo Emerson real secret character Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst...They are for nothing but to inspire. Ralph Waldo Emerson used inspire book That which befits us, embosomed in beauty and wonder as we are, is cheerfulness, and courage, and the endeavor to realize our aspirations. Shall not the heart which has received so much, trust the Power by which it lives? May it not quit other leadings, and listen to the Soul that has guided it so gently, and taught it so much, secure that the future will be worthy of the past? Ralph Waldo Emerson soul heart past
