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Quotes/entries for ‘Emerson, Ralph Waldo’

 

We grant no dukedoms to the few,
We hold like rights and shall; —
Equal on Sunday in the pew,
On Monday in the mall.
For what avail the plough or sail,
Or land or life, if freedom fail?

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Boston” (1873)

Written and read for the 100th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.

Added on 9-Jan-08 | Last updated 9-Jan-08
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We learn geology the morning after the earthquake.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Considerations by the Way,” The Conduct of Life (1860)

Added on 20-Jul-10 | Last updated 20-Jul-10
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The opium of custom, whereof all drink and many go mad.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Education,” Lectures and Biographical Sketches (1883)

Added on 15-Jun-09 | Last updated 15-Jun-09
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Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Eloquence,” Letters and Social Aims (1876)

Added on 17-Dec-09 | Last updated 17-Dec-09
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Nature, as we know her, is no saint.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Experience,” Essays: Second Series (1844)

Added on 22-Dec-11 | Last updated 22-Dec-11
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Better be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Friendship,” Essays: First Series (1841)

Added on 7-Sep-10 | Last updated 7-Sep-10
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A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Friendship,” Essays: First Series (1841)

Added on 14-Sep-10 | Last updated 14-Sep-10
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Life is a perpetual instruction in cause and effect.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Natural Religion” (3 Feb. 1861)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
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We cannot overstate our debt to the Past, but the moment has the supreme claim.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Quotations and Originality,” Letters and Social Aims (1876)

Added on 16-May-12 | Last updated 16-May-12
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You will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series (1841)

Added on 21-Oct-09 | Last updated 21-Oct-09
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In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series (1841)

Added on 25-Aug-10 | Last updated 25-Aug-10
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Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series (1841)

Added on 19-Sep-11 | Last updated 19-Sep-11
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Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series (1841)

Added on 27-Oct-11 | Last updated 27-Oct-11
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Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Social Aims,” Letters and Social Aims (1876)

Added on 12-May-09 | Last updated 12-May-09
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In good conversation, parties don’t speak to the words, but to the meanings of each other.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Social Aims,” Letters and Social Aims (1876)

Added on 4-Dec-09 | Last updated 4-Dec-09
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Don’t say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Social Aims,” Letters and Social Aims (vol. 8 of The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson) (1917)

Based on a Boston lecture (4 Dec 1864). http://www.bartleby.com/73/186.html

Added on 21-Jul-07 | Last updated 21-Jul-07
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Excellence is lost sight of in the hunger for sudden performance and praise.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Success,” Society and Solitude (1870)

Added on 15-Feb-10 | Last updated 15-Feb-10
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When Carlini was convulsing Naples with laughter, a patient wated on a physician in that city, to obtain some remedy for excessive melancholy, which was rapidly consuming his life. The physician endeavored to cheer his spirits, and advised him to go to the theater and see Carlini. He replied, “I am Carlini.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“The Comic,” closing words, Letters and Social Aims (1876)

Added on 26-Feb-09 | Last updated 26-Feb-09
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Conservatism stands on man’s incontestable limitations; reform on his indisputable infinitiude.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“The Conservative” (lecture), Masonic Temple, Boston (9 Dec 1841)

Added on 14-Apr-09 | Last updated 14-Apr-09
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Nature works in immense time and spends individuals and races prodigally to prepare new individuals and races.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“The Fortune of the Republic,” lecture, Old South Church, Boston (30 Mar 1878)

Added on 15-Dec-11 | Last updated 15-Dec-11
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Divine Providence sends the chiefest benefits under the mask of calamities.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“The Fortune of the Republic,” lecture, Old South Church, Boston (9 Mar 1878)

Added on 24-Mar-09 | Last updated 24-Mar-09
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There is no unemployed force in Nature. All decomposition is recomposition.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“The Man of Letters,” Lectures and Biographical Sketches (1883)

Added on 8-Dec-11 | Last updated 8-Dec-11
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Every observation of history inspires a confidence that we shall not go far wrong; that things will mend.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“The Young American” (lecture), Boston (7 Feb. 1844)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
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Every observation of history inspires a confidence that we shall not go far wrong; that things will mend.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“The Young American,” lecture, Mercantile Library Association, Boston (7 Feb 1844)

Added on 31-Dec-10 | Last updated 31-Dec-10
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Every hero becomes a bore at last.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Uses of Great Men,” Representative Men (1850)

Added on 16-May-07 | Last updated 13-Oct-10
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The shield against the stingings of conscience is the universal practice of our contemporaries. Again, it is very easy to be as wise and good as your companions.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Uses of Great Men,” Representative Men (1850)

Added on 26-Mar-09 | Last updated 26-Mar-09
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Money often costs too much.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Wealth,” The Conduct of Life (1860)

Added on 21-Oct-11 | Last updated 21-Oct-11
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Can anyone remember when times were not hard, and money was not scarce?

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Words and Days,” Society and Solitude (1870)

Added on 17-Feb-12 | Last updated 17-Feb-12
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It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
(Attributed)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
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The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
(Attributed)

Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 1-Feb-04
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