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 A man should give us a sense of mass. Ralph Waldo Emerson integrity giving men I cannot find language of sufficient energy to convey my sense of the sacredness of private integrity. All men, all things, the state, the church, yea the friends of the heart are phantasms and unreal beside the sanctuary of the heart. With so much awe, with so much fear, let it be respected. Ralph Waldo Emerson heart integrity men It is bad enough that our geniuses cannot do anything useful, but it is worse that no man is fit for society who has fine traits.He is admired at a distance, but he cannot come near without appearing a cripple. Ralph Waldo Emerson distance integrity men Poverty demoralizes. A man in debt is so far a slave; and Wall-street thinks it easy for a millionaire to be a man of his word, aman of honor, but, that, in failing circumstances, no man can be relied on to keep his integrity. Ralph Waldo Emerson wall integrity men Whatever events in progress shall disgust men with cities, and infuse into them the passion for country life, and country pleasures, will render a service to the whole face of this continent, and will further the most poetic of all the occupations of real life, the bringing out by art the native but hidden graces of the landscape. Ralph Waldo Emerson real country art The cities drain the country of the best part of its population: the flower of the youth, of both sexes, goes into the towns, andthe country is cultivated by a so much inferior class. The land,--travel a whole day together,--looks poverty-stricken, and the buildings plain and poor. Ralph Waldo Emerson flower country sex The democrat is a young conservative; the conservative is an old democrat. The aristocrat is the democrat ripe, and gone to seed,--because both parties stand on the one ground of the supreme value of property, which one endeavors to get, and the other to keep. Ralph Waldo Emerson politics party gone Whilst the rights of all as persons are equal, in virtue of their access to reason, their rights in property are very unequal. Oneman owns his clothes, and another owns a country. Ralph Waldo Emerson clothes rights country Personal rights, universally the same, demand a government framed on the ratio of the census: property demands a government framedon the ratio of owners and of owning. Ralph Waldo Emerson demand government rights The whole constitution of property on its present tenures, is injurious, and its influence on persons deteriorating and degrading. Ralph Waldo Emerson degrading constitution influence A scholar does not wish to be always pumping his brains; he wants gossips. Ralph Waldo Emerson gossip wish brain Intellectual tasting of life will not supersede muscular activity. If a man should consider the nicety of the passage of a piece of bread down his throat, he would starve. Ralph Waldo Emerson intellectual bread men We hear eagerly every thought and word quoted from an intellectual man. But in his presence our own mind is roused to activity, and we forget very fast what he says. Ralph Waldo Emerson intellectual mind men The scholar may lose himself in schools, in words, and become a pedant; but when he comprehends his duties, he above all men is arealist, and converses with things. Ralph Waldo Emerson may men school The society of the energetic class, in their friendly and festive meetings, is full of courage, and of attempts, which intimidatethe pale scholar. Ralph Waldo Emerson action class friendly A man of thought must feel the thought that is parent of the universe: that the masses of nature do undulate and flow. Ralph Waldo Emerson flow parent men When the literary class betray a destitution of faith, it is not strange that society should be disheartened and sensualized by unbelief. Ralph Waldo Emerson strange faith class The scholar was not raised by the sacred thoughts amongst which he dwelt, but used them to selfish ends. He was a profane person,and became a showman, turning his gifts to marketable use, and not to his own sustenance and growth. It was found that the intellect could be independently developed, that is, in separation from the man, as any single organ can be invigorated, and the result was monstrous. Ralph Waldo Emerson selfish growth men The genius of the Platonists, is intoxicating to the student, yet how few particulars of it can I detach from all their books. Ralph Waldo Emerson genius plato book The intellectual life may be kept clean and healthful, if man will live the life of nature, and not import into his mind difficulties which are none of his. Ralph Waldo Emerson live-life intellectual men
