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 What new thoughts are suggested by seeing a face of country quite familiar, in the rapid movement of the rail-road car! Ralph Waldo Emerson car movement country A Gothic cathedral affirms that it was done by us and not done by us. Ralph Waldo Emerson cathedrals gothic done The Gothic cathedral is a blossoming in stone subdued by the insatiable demand of harmony in man. Ralph Waldo Emerson demand stones men To eat bread is one thing; to love the precepts of Christ and resolve to obey them is quite another. Ralph Waldo Emerson communion bread christ Railroad iron is a magician's rod, in its power to evoke the sleeping energies of land and water. Ralph Waldo Emerson land power sleep The goof man, in dealing with his people, taxes them with luxury. Ralph Waldo Emerson luxury men people In vain produced, all rays return; Ralph Waldo Emerson rays ice evil The true preacher can be known by this, that he deals out to the people his life,--life passed through the fire of thought. Ralph Waldo Emerson preacher fire people Whenever the pulpit is usurped by a formalist, then is the worshipper defrauded and disconsolate. Ralph Waldo Emerson pulpit worshippers We commonly say that the rich man can speak the truth, can afford honesty, can afford independence of opinion and action;--and that is the theory of nobility. But it is the rich man in a true sense, that is to say, not the man of large income and large expenditure, but solely the man whose outlay is less than his income and is steadily kept so. Ralph Waldo Emerson independence honesty men The lord is the peasant that was, Ralph Waldo Emerson peasants lord What forests of laurel we bring, and the tears of mankind, to those who stood firm against the opinion of their contemporaries! Ralph Waldo Emerson opinion tears forests The God who made New Hampshire Ralph Waldo Emerson land littles men What care though rival cities soar Ralph Waldo Emerson boston cities new-york I do not speak with any fondness but the language of coolest history, when I say that Boston commands attention as the town whichwas appointed in the destiny of nations to lead the civilization of North America. Ralph Waldo Emerson boston destiny civilization My gentleman gives the law where he is; he will outpray saints in chapel, outgeneral veterans in the field, and outshine all courtesy in the hall. He is good company for pirates, and good with academicians; so that it is useless to fortify yourself against him; he has the private entrance to all minds, and I could as easily exclude myself, as him. Ralph Waldo Emerson pirate law giving Another success is the post-office, with its educating energy augmented by cheapness and guarded by a certain religious sentimentin mankind; so that the power of a wafer or a drop of wax or gluten to guard a letter, as it flies over sea over land and comes to its address as if a battalion of artillery brought it, I look upon as a fine meter of civilization. Ralph Waldo Emerson land religious sea But, if we explore the literature of Heroism, we shall quickly come to Plutarch, who is its Doctor and historian. To him we owe the Brasidas, the Dion, the Epaminodas, the Scipio of old, and I must think we are more deeply indebted to him than to all the ancient writers. Each of his "Lives" is a refutation to the despondency and cowardice of our religious and political theorists. A wild courage, a Stoicism not of the schools, but of the blood, shines in every anecdote, and had given that book immense fame. Ralph Waldo Emerson religious book school The law of nature is alternation for evermore. Each electrical state superinduces the opposite. Ralph Waldo Emerson states law opposites The field cannot be well seen from within the field. The astronomer must have his diameter of the earth's orbit as a base to fix the parallax of any other star Ralph Waldo Emerson orbit stars earth
