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 We estimate the wisdom of nations by seeing what they did with their surplus capital. Ralph Waldo Emerson surplus nations wisdom One man's justice is another's injustice; one man's beauty another's ugliness; one man's wisdom anpther's folly. Ralph Waldo Emerson wisdom justice men Consideration is the soil in which wisdom may be expected to grow, and strength be given to every up-springing plant of duty. Ralph Waldo Emerson soil wisdom may To make knowledge valuable, you must have the cheerfulness of wisdom. Ralph Waldo Emerson valuable wisdom knowledge We walk alone in the world. Friends, such as we desire, are dreams and fables. Ralph Waldo Emerson dream desire world A little fact is worth a whole limbo of dreams. Ralph Waldo Emerson dream littles facts Our eyes are holden that we cannot see things that stare us in the face, until the hour arrives when the mind is ripened; then we behold them, and the time when we saw them not is like a dream. Ralph Waldo Emerson eye mind dream Don't be a cynic and disconsolate preacher. Don't bewail and moan. Omit the negative propositions. Challenge us with incessant affirmatives. Ralph Waldo Emerson cynicism challenges negative Though love repine, and reason chafe, There came a voice without reply,- "'Tis man's perdition to be safe, When for the truth he ought to die." Ralph Waldo Emerson truth love men Four snakes gliding up and down a hollow for no purpose that I could see - not to eat, not for love, but only gliding. Ralph Waldo Emerson gliding snakes love Never lose an opportunity to see anything that is beautiful. It is God's handwriting a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower. Ralph Waldo Emerson nature beautiful beauty The hand that rounded Peter's dome, And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, Wrought in a sad sincerity; Himself from God he could not free; He builded better than he knew: The conscious stone to beauty grew. Ralph Waldo Emerson rome christian beauty I wiped away the weeds and foam, I fetched my sea-born treasures home; But the poor, unsightly, noisome things Had left their beauty on the shore, With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar. Ralph Waldo Emerson weed home beauty Rhodora! If the sages ask thee why This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, Then Beauty is its own excuse for being. Ralph Waldo Emerson eye sky beauty Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner, or before taking their rest; when they are sick or aged. In the morning, or when their intellect or their conscience has been aroused, when they hear music, or when they read poetry, they are radicals. Ralph Waldo Emerson sick morning men We must hold a man amenable to reason for the choice of his daily craft or profession. It is not an excuse any longer for his deeds that they are the custom of his trade. What business has he with an evil trade? Ralph Waldo Emerson business evil men The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low business-tone, avoids all brag, is nobody, dresses plainly, promises not at all, performs much, speaks in monosyllables, hugs his fact. Ralph Waldo Emerson hug business men The compensations of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also, after long intervals of time. Ralph Waldo Emerson understanding time long Nature is methodical, and doeth her work well. Time is never to be hurried. Ralph Waldo Emerson wells nature time The truth, the hope of any time, must always be sought in minorities. Ralph Waldo Emerson truth hope time
