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 In the moment when you make the least petition to God, though it be but a silent wish that he may approve you, or add one moment to your life,--do you not, in the very act, necessarily exclude all other beings from your thought? In that act, the soul stands alone with God, and Jesus is no more present to your mind than your brother or your child. Ralph Waldo Emerson brother god jesus Women stand related to beautiful nature around us, and the enamoured youth mixes their form with moon and stars, with woods and waters, and the pomp of summer. They heal us of awkwardness by their words and looks. We observe their intellectual influence on the most serious student. They refine and clear his mind: teach him to put a pleasing method into what is dry and difficult. Ralph Waldo Emerson stars summer beautiful The saint and poet seek privacy to ends the most public and universal: and it is the secret of culture, to interest the man more in his public, than in his private quality. Ralph Waldo Emerson solitude secret men Keep the town for occasions, but the habits should be formed in retirement. Ralph Waldo Emerson towns solitude retirement The solitary knows the essence of the thought, the scholar in society only its fair face. Ralph Waldo Emerson solitude essence faces But your isolation must not be mechanical, but spiritual, that is, must be elevation. Ralph Waldo Emerson isolation solitude spiritual My doom and my strength is to be solitary. Ralph Waldo Emerson solitary solitude strength Solitude is impractical, and society fatal. We must keep our head in the one and our hands in the other. The conditions are met, if we keep our independence, yet do not lose our sympathy. Ralph Waldo Emerson solitude sympathy hands Think me not unkind and rude Ralph Waldo Emerson rude men thinking Yet some natures are too good to be spoiled by praise, and wherever the vein of thought reaches down into the profound, there is no danger from vanity. Solemn friends will warn them of the danger of the head's being turned by the flourish of trumpets, but they can afford to smile. Ralph Waldo Emerson veins vanity profound I hate to be defended in a newspaper. As long as all that is said is said against me, I feel a certain assurance of success. But as soon as honeyed words of praise are spoken for me, I feel as one that lies unprotected before his enemies. Ralph Waldo Emerson hate success lying The most attractive class of people are those who are powerful obliquely, and not by the direct stroke: men of genius, but not yetaccredited: one gets the cheer of their light, without paying too great a tax. Ralph Waldo Emerson powerful cheer men Society is the stage on which manners are shown; novels are the literature. Novels are the journal or record of manners; and the new importance of these books derives from the fact, that the novelist begins to penetrate the surface, and treat this part of life more worthily. Ralph Waldo Emerson novelists book facts We must not inquire too curiously into the absolute value of literature. Enough that it amuses and exercises us. At least it leaves us where we were. It names things, but does not add things. Ralph Waldo Emerson names doe exercise Society has really no graver interest than the well-being of the literary class. Ralph Waldo Emerson interest literature class The permanence of all books is fixed by no effort friendly or hostile, but by their own specific gravity, or the intrinsic importance of their contents to the constant mind of man. Ralph Waldo Emerson effort men book Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close. The millions, that around us arerushing into life, cannot always be fed on the sere remains of foreign harvests. Ralph Waldo Emerson independence land long Good criticism is very rare and always precious. Ralph Waldo Emerson criticism If you criticize a fine genius, the odds are that you are out of your reckoning, and, instead of the poet, are censuring your owncaricature of him. Ralph Waldo Emerson genius odds criticism Those who are esteemed umpires of taste, are often persons who have acquired some knowledge of admired pictures or sculptures, andhave an inclination for whatever is elegant; but if you inquire whether they are beautiful souls, and whether their own acts are like fair pictures, you learn that they are selfish and sensual. Their cultivation is local, as if you should rub a log of dry wood in one spot to produce fire, all the rest remaining cold. Ralph Waldo Emerson umpires selfish beautiful
