Quotes by Emerson, Ralph Waldo

"I can reason down or deny everything, except this perpetual Belly: feed he must and will, and I cannot make him respectable."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on food and eating   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"Let the stoics say what they please, we do not eat for the good of living, but because the meat is savory and the appetite is keen."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on food and eating   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on fortune   

"Liberty is slow fruit. It is never cheap; it is made difficult because freedom is the accomplishment and perfectness of man."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on freedom   

"For what avail the plough or sail, Or land or life, if freedom fail?"

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on freedom
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"So far as a person thinks; they are free."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on freedom
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"Nothing is more disgusting than the crowing about liberty by slaves, as most men are, and the flippant mistaking for freedom of some paper preamble like a Declaration of Independence, or the statute right to vote, by those who have never dared to think or to act."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on freedom   

"Go oft to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on friends and friendship
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"The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on friends and friendship
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"We talk of choosing our friends, but friends are self-elected"

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on friends and friendship
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"He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on friends and friendship
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"Friends, such as we desire, are dreams and fables."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on friends and friendship   

"A true friend is somebody who can make us do what we can."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on friends and friendship
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"A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on friends and friendship
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"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on friends and friendship
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"The glory of friendship is not in the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is in the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on friends and friendship
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"A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on friends and friendship
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"A day for toil, an hour for sport, but for a friend is life too short."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on friends and friendship
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"The only way to have a friend is to be one."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on friends and friendship
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"I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I can find them, but I seldom use them."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on friends and friendship   

"I didn't find my friends; the good Lord gave them to me."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on friends and friendship
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"Every man passes his life in the search after friendship."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on friends and friendship
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"The chief mourner does not always attend the funeral."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on funerals
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"It is always so pleasant to be generous, though very vexatious to pay debts."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on generosity   

"Only an inventor knows how to borrow, and every man is or should be an inventor."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on genius   

"The greatest genius is the most indebted person."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on genius
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"The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue; and no genius can long or often utter anything which is not invited and gladly entertained by men around him."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on genius   

"To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men -- that is genius."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on genius
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"When Nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on genius
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"In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on genius
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"Coffee is good for talent, but genius wants prayer."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on genius
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"Accept your genius and say what you think."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on genius
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"A man of genius is privileged only as far as he is genius. His dullness is as insupportable as any other dullness."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on genius   

"Repose and cheerfulness are the badge of the gentleman -- repose in energy."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on gentlemen   

"The only gift is a portion of thyself."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on gifts
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"People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on ability
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"Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on ability
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"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on achievement
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"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on achievement
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"We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on aid and assistance