583 quotes
What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered.
Fortune of the Republic (1878)
Glittering generalities! They are blazing ubiquities.
It costs a beautiful person no exertion to paint her image on our eyes; yet how splendid is that benefit! It costs no more for a wise soul to convey his quality to other men.
Representative Men (1850)
The profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader. The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine until an equal mind and heart finds and publishes it.
Letters and Social Aims (1876)
The charm of the best courages is that they are inventions, inspirations, flashes of genius.
Go where he will, the wise man is at home,
His hearth the earth, his hall the azure dome.
Poems (1847)
I hate the prostitution of the name of friendship to signify modish and worldly alliances.
I see that sensible men and conscientious men all over the world were of one religion.
Lectures and Biographical Sketches (1883)
Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
Journals (1822)
Deep in the man sits fast his fate
To mould his fortunes, mean or great.
May-Day and Other Pieces (1867)
The condition which high friendship demands is ability to do without it.
Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.
Works of the intellect are great only by comparison with each other.
For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a poem.
Earth proudly wears the Parthenon
As the best gem upon her zone.
Poems (1847)
He that despiseth small things will perish by little and little.
That which is best about conservatism, that which, though it cannot be expressed in detail, inspires reverence in all, is the Inevitable.
The Conservative (1841)
Books are the best things, well used: abused, among the worst.
When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart.
Journals (1822)
The tradesman scarcely ever gives an ideal worth to his work, but is ridden by the routine of his craft, and the soul is subject to dollars.