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 If, at any time, it comes into my head, that a present is due from me to somebody, I am puzzled what to give, until the opportunity is gone. Ralph Waldo Emerson gone opportunity giving Every thought is public, Ralph Waldo Emerson gossip spread sides I feel the same truth how often in my trivial conversation with my neighbours, that somewhat higher in each of us overlooks this by-play, and Jove nods to Jove from behind each of us. Ralph Waldo Emerson play feels conversation My hours are peaceful centuries. Ralph Waldo Emerson peaceful hours peace Cowardice shuts the eyes till the sky is not larger than a calf-skin: shuts the eyes so that we cannot see the horse that is running away with us; worse, shuts the eyes of the mind and chills the heart. Ralph Waldo Emerson horse eye running Sanity consists in not being subdued by your means. Fancy prices are paid for position, and for the culture of talent, but to thegrand interests, superficial success is of no account. Ralph Waldo Emerson fancy success mean Whilst all the world is in pursuit of power, culture corrects the theory of success. Ralph Waldo Emerson success culture world Success goes thus invariably with a certain plus or positive power: an ounce of power must balance an ounce of weight. Ralph Waldo Emerson balance power success Every true man is a cause, a country, and an age; requires infinite spaces and numbers and time fully to accomplish his design;--and posterity seem to follow his steps as a train of clients. Ralph Waldo Emerson success men country Men of extraordinary success, in their honest moments, have always sung, "Not unto us, not unto us." According to the faith of their times, they have built altars to Fortune, or to Destiny, or to St. Julian. Their success lay in their parallelism to the course of thought, which found in them an unobstructed channel; and the wonders of which they were the visible conductors seemed to their eye their deed. Ralph Waldo Emerson eye humility success The secret of success lies never in the amount of money, but in the relation of income to outgo. Ralph Waldo Emerson money success lying The cold, inconsiderate of persons, tingles your blood, benumbs your feet, freezes a man like an apple. Ralph Waldo Emerson apples men blood The energetic action of the times develops individualism, and the religious appear isolated. I esteem this a step in the right direction. Heaven deals with us on no representative system. Souls are not saved in bundles. Ralph Waldo Emerson soul religious heaven There are many eyes that can detect and honor the prudent and household virtues; there are many that can discern Genius on his starry track, though the mob is incapable; but when that love which is all-suffering, all-abstaining, all-aspiring, which has vowed to itself, that it will be a wretch and also a fool in this world, sooner than soil its white hands by any compliances, comes into our streets and houses,--only the pure and aspiring can know its face, and the only compliment they can pay it, is to own it. Ralph Waldo Emerson eye hands jesus The idealism of Berkeley is only a crude statement of the idealism of Jesus, and that again is a crude statement of the fact thatall nature is the rapid efflux of goodness executing and organizing itself. Ralph Waldo Emerson facts jesus christ The dogma of the mystic offices of Christ being dropped, and he standing on his genius as a moral teacher, 'tis impossible to maintain the old emphasis of his personality; and it recedes, as all persons must, before the sublimity of the moral laws. Ralph Waldo Emerson law teacher jesus But the mark of American merit in painting, in sculpture, in poetry, in fiction, in eloquence, seems to be a certain grace withoutgrandeur, and itself not new but derivative; a vase of fair outline, but empty,--which whoso sees, may fill with what wit and character is in him, but which does not, like the charged cloud, overflow with terrible beauty, and emit lightnings on all beholders. Ralph Waldo Emerson clouds character america The Americans have many virtues, but they have not Faith and Hope. I know no two words whose meaning is more lost sight of. Ralph Waldo Emerson hope faith sight The American who has been confined, in his own country, to the sight of buildings designed after foreign models, is surprised on entering York Minster or St. Peter's at Rome, by the feeling that these structures are imitations also,--faint copies of an invisible archetype. Ralph Waldo Emerson rome sight country As long as our people quote English standards they dwarf their own proportions. Ralph Waldo Emerson dwarves long america
