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 Power ceases in the instant of repose; it resides in the moment of transition from a past to a new state, in the shooting of the gulf, in the darting to an aim. Ralph Waldo Emerson transition power past Only to youth will spring be spring. Ralph Waldo Emerson spring inspirational children As the Sandwich Islander believes that the strength and valor of the enemy he kills passes into himself, so we gain the strength of the temptation we resist. Ralph Waldo Emerson success life believe God may forgive sins, he said, but awkwardness has no forgiveness in heaven or earth. Ralph Waldo Emerson awkward forgiving heaven Literature is the effort of man to indemnify himself for the wrongs of his condition. Ralph Waldo Emerson effort music men Throughout the ages there have always been those who have been willing to go beyond the norms and reach for that unknown and distant star. Ralph Waldo Emerson learning stars teaching Hast thou named all the birds without a gun? Ralph Waldo Emerson gun bird In talking with scholars, I observe that they lost on ruder companions those years of boyhood which alone could give imaginative literature a religious and infinite quality in their esteem. Ralph Waldo Emerson religious talking years Let me admonish you, first of all, to go alone; to refuse the good models, even those which are sacred in the imagination of men, and dare to love God without mediator or veil. Ralph Waldo Emerson veils imagination men Society, to be sure, does not like this very well; it saith, Whoso goes to walk alone, accuses the whole world; he declares all to be unfit to be his companions; it is very uncivil, nay, insulting; Society will retaliate. Ralph Waldo Emerson insulting doe world I am grown by sympathy a little eager and sentimental, but leave me alone, and I should relish every hour and what it brought me, the pot-luck of the day, as heartily as the oldest gossip in the bar-room. Ralph Waldo Emerson gossip luck leave-me-alone To the men of this world, to the animal strength and spirits, to the men of practical power, whilst immersed in it, the man of ideas appears out of his reason. They alone gave reason. Ralph Waldo Emerson animal men ideas The universal soul is the alone creator of the useful and the beautiful; therefore to make anything useful or beautiful, the individual must be submitted to the universal mind. Ralph Waldo Emerson soul mind beautiful It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone, scarcely even in acts of pure memory, but to bring the past for judgment into the thousand-eyed present, and live ever in a new day. Ralph Waldo Emerson memories past new-day Go where he will, the wise man is at home, His hearth the earth, his hall the azure dome. Ralph Waldo Emerson wise home men Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Ralph Waldo Emerson self-reliance aversion conformity It is easy to see that a greater self-reliance must work a revolution in all the offices and relations of men; in their religion; in their education; in their pursuits; their modes of living; their association; in their property; in their speculative views. Ralph Waldo Emerson self views men And so the reliance on Property, including the reliance on governments which protect it, is the want of self-reliance. Ralph Waldo Emerson government self want A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages Ralph Waldo Emerson self-reliance light men We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. Ralph Waldo Emerson self-reliance inspirational ideas
