Quotes by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

"Society is a hospital of incurables."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on society   

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"Society always consists in the greatest part, of young and foolish persons."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on society   

"Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on society   

"Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on society
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"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinions; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on solitude
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"Solitude is impractical and yet society is fatal."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on solitude
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"We walk alone in the world."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on solitude
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"We never touch but at points."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on solitude
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"Conversation enriches the understanding; but solitude is the school of genius."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on solitude
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"Sorrow makes us children again."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on sorrow
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"The only thing grief has taught me is to know how shallow it is."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on sorrow
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"Sorrow makes us all children again, destroys all differences of intellect. The wisest knows nothing."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on sorrow   

"The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on soul   

"The soul's emphasis is always right."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on soul   

"All the great speakers were bad speakers at first."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on speakers and speaking   

"Condense some daily experience into a glowing symbol and an audience is electrified."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on speakers and speaking   

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"Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on speech   

"The foundations of a person are not in matter but in spirit."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on spirituality   

"Our spontaneous action is always the best. You cannot, with your best deliberation and heed, come so close to any question as your spontaneous glance shall bring you."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on spontaneity   

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"The State must follow, and not lead, the character and progress of the citizen."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on state   

"We acquire the strength we have overcome."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on strength
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"There is always room for a person of force and they make room for many."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on strength   

"The key to the age may be this, or that, or the other, as the young orators describe; the key to all ages is -- Imbecility; imbecility in the vast majority of men, at all times, and, even in heroes, in all but certain eminent moments; victims of gravity, custom, and fear."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on stupidity   

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on success
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"Often a certain abdication of prudence and foresight is an element of success."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on success   

"A strenuous soul hates cheap success."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on success   

"If man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles, or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad, hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on success   

"There is no way to success in art but to take off your coat, grind paint, and work like a digger on the railroad, all day and every day."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on success   

"There is a tendency for things to right themselves."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on action
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"Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on action
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"Act, if you like, but you do it at your peril. Men's actions are too strong for them. Show me a man who has acted and who has not been the victim and slave of his action."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on action   

"The German intellect wants the French sprightliness, the fine practical understanding of the English, and the American adventure; but it has a certain probity, which never rests in a superficial performance, but asks steadily, To what end? A German public asks for a controlling sincerity."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on action   

"Let us, if we must have great actions, make our own so. All action is of infinite elasticity, and the least admits of being inflated with celestial air, until it eclipses the sun and moon."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on action   

"Men's actions are too strong for them. Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the victim and slave of his action."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on action   

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"The ancestor of every action is thought."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on action
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"Real action is in silent moments."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on action
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"We are taught by great actions that the universe is the property of every individual in it."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on action
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"Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on action   

"We are always getting ready to live, but never living."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on action
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"Why should we be cowed by the name of Action?."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on action   

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