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 Perhaps it is the lowest of the qualities of an orator, but it is, on so many occasions, of chief importance,--a certain robust and radiant physical health; or--shall I say?--great volumes of animal heat. Ralph Waldo Emerson quality health animal The right eloquence needs no bell to call the people together, and no constable to keep them. Ralph Waldo Emerson together people needs Eloquence must be grounded on the plainest narrative. Afterwards, it may warm itself until it exhales symbols of every kind and color, speaks only through the most poetic forms; but first and last, it must still be at bottom a biblical statement of fact. Ralph Waldo Emerson biblical color may But a public oration is an escapade, a non-committal, an apology, a gag, and not a communication, not a speech, not a man. Ralph Waldo Emerson apology communication men We learn geology the morning after the earthquake, on ghastly diagrams of cloven mountains, upheaved plains, and the dry bed of the sea. Ralph Waldo Emerson sea earthquakes morning The secret of fortune is joy in our hands. Ralph Waldo Emerson secret joy hands Democracy is morose, and runs to anarchy, but in the state, and in the schools, it is indispensable to resist the consolidation ofall men into a few men. Ralph Waldo Emerson running men school We honor the rich because they have externally the freedom, power, and grace which we feel to be proper to man, proper to us. Ralph Waldo Emerson grace honor men The advantage of riches remains with him who procured them, not with the heir. Ralph Waldo Emerson heirs inheritance riches Conservatism is affluent and openhanded, but there is a cunning juggle in riches. I observe that they take somewhat for everythingthey give. I look bigger, but am less; I have more clothes, but am nit so warm; more armor, but less courage; more books, but less wit. Ralph Waldo Emerson clothes giving book The socialism of our day has done good service in setting men to thinking how certain civilizing benefits, now only enjoyed by theopulent, can be enjoyed by all. Ralph Waldo Emerson done men thinking He is the rich man in whom the people are rich, and he is the poor man in whom the people are poor; and how to give access to themasterpieces of art and nature, is the problem of civilization. Ralph Waldo Emerson men civilization art The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most. The power which the sea requires in the sailor makes a man of him very fast, and the change of shores and population clears his head of much nonsense of his wigwam. Ralph Waldo Emerson population sea men The sea is masculine, the type of active strength. Look, what egg-shells are drifting all over it, each one, like ours, filled with men in ecstasies of terror, alternating with cockney conceit, as the sea is rough or smooth. Is this sad-colored circle an eternal cemetery? Ralph Waldo Emerson circles sea men Very few of our race can be said to be yet finished men. We still carry sticking to us some remains of the preceding inferior quadruped organization. We call these millions men; but they are not yet men. Half-engaged in the soil, pawing to get free, man needs all the music that can be brought to disengage him. Ralph Waldo Emerson organization race men The consciousness in each man is a sliding scale, which identifies him now with the First Cause, and now with the flesh of his body; life above life, in infinite degrees. Ralph Waldo Emerson degrees body men Logic is the procession or proportionate unfolding of the intuition; but its virtue is as silent method; the moment it would appear as propositions, and have a separate value, it is worthless. Ralph Waldo Emerson intuition logic moments Our reliance on the physician is a kind of despair of ourselves. Ralph Waldo Emerson physicians despair doctors The moral sense is always supported by the permanent interest of the parties. Else, I know not how, in our world, any good would ever get done. Ralph Waldo Emerson our-world party done All things are moral. That soul, which within us is a sentiment, outside of us is a law. We feel its inspiration; out there in history we can see its fatal strength. Ralph Waldo Emerson strength inspiration law
