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 Manners are very communicable: men catch them from each other. Ralph Waldo Emerson manners men I could better eat with one who did not respect the truth or the laws, than with a sloven and unpresentable person. Moral qualities rule the world, but at shorter distances, the senses are despotic. Ralph Waldo Emerson respect distance law Manners aim to facilitate life, to get rid of impediments, and bring the man pure to energize. They aid our dealing and conversation, as a railway aids travelling, by getting rid of all avoidable obstructions of the road, and leaving nothing to be conquered but pure space. Ralph Waldo Emerson leaving space men A man is but a little thing in the midst of the objects of nature, yet, by the moral quality radiating from his countenance, he may abolish all considerations of magnitude, and in his manners equal the majesty of the world. Ralph Waldo Emerson quality men world It is noticed, that the consideration of the great periods and spaces of astronomy induces a dignity of mind, and an indifferenceto death. Ralph Waldo Emerson dignity space mind Every man is wanted, and no man is wanted much. Ralph Waldo Emerson every-man wanted men Without looking, then, to those extraordinary social influences which are now acting in precisely this direction, but only at whatis inevitably doing around us, I think we must regard the land as a commanding and increasing power on the citizen, the sanative and Americanizing influence, which promises to disclose new virtues for ages to come. Ralph Waldo Emerson land promise thinking There is also something excellent in every audience,--the capacity of virtue. They are ready to be beatified. Ralph Waldo Emerson excellent virtue capacity The eloquence of one stimulates all the rest, some up to the speaking-point, and all others to a degree that makes them good receivers and conductors, and they avenge themselves for their enforced silence by increased loquacity on their return. Ralph Waldo Emerson degrees return silence Some men love only to talk where they are masters. They like to go to school-girls, or to boys, or into the shops where the sauntering people gladly lend an ear. Ralph Waldo Emerson girl boys school The frost which kills the harvest of a year saves the harvest of a century, by destroying the weevil or the locust. Ralph Waldo Emerson harvest frost years The farmer after sacrificing pleasure, taste, freedom, thought, love, to his work, turns out often a bankrupt, like the merchant.This result might well seem astounding. All this drudgery, from cockcrowing to starlight, for all these years, to end in mortgages and the auctioneer's flag, and removing from bad to worse. It is time to have the thing looked into, and with a sifting criticism ascertained who is the fool. Ralph Waldo Emerson sacrifice criticism years Beside all the moral benefit which we may expect from the farmer's profession, when a man enters it considerately, this promised the conquering of the soil, plenty, and beyond this, the adorning of the country with every advantage and ornament which labor, ingenuity, and affection for a man's home, could suggest. Ralph Waldo Emerson home men country A farm is a good thing, when it begins and ends with itself, and does not need a salary, or a shop, to eke it out. Ralph Waldo Emerson shopping doe needs I quote another man's saying; unluckily, that other withdraws himself in the same way, and quotes me. Ralph Waldo Emerson another-man men way A healthy soul stands united with the Just and the True, as the magnet arranges itself with the pole, so that he stands to all beholders like a transparent object betwixt them and the sun, and whoso journeys towards the sun, journeys towards that person. He is thus the medium of the highest influence to all who are not on the same level. Ralph Waldo Emerson healthy soul journey When there is sympathy, there needs but one wise man in a company and all are wise,--so, a blockhead makes a blockhead of his companion. Wonderful power to benumb possesses this brother. Ralph Waldo Emerson brother wise sympathy Each man too is a tyrant in tendency, because he would impose his idea on others; and their trick is their natural defence. Jesuswould absorb the race; but Tom Paine or the coarsest blasphemer helps humanity by resisting this exuberance of power. Ralph Waldo Emerson tyrants men ideas For, truly speaking, whoever provokes me to a good act or thought has given me a pledge of his fidelity to virtue,--he has come under the bonds to adhere to that cause to which we are jointly attached. Ralph Waldo Emerson virtue influence causes Again, the great number of cultivated men keep each other up to a high standard. The habit of meeting well-read and knowing men teaches the art of omission and selection. Ralph Waldo Emerson numbers men art
