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Attributed quotes — Ralph Waldo Emerson

1803–1882 United States

← All quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

51 quotes

The virtues of society are the vices of the saints.

Attributed Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

Attributed Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)

The value of a principle is the number of things it will explain; and there is no good theory of disease which does not at once suggest a cure.

Attributed Pearls of Thought (1881)

Sunshine cannot bleach the snow,
Nor time unmake what poets know.

Attributed

What is there in 'Paradise Lost' to elevate and astonish like Herschel or Somerville?

Attributed

In skating over thin ice our safety is our speed.

Attributed Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)

No congress, nor mob, nor guillotine, nor fire, nor all together, can avail, to cut out, burn, or destroy the offense of superiority in persons. The superiority in him is inferiority in me.

Attributed Pearls of Thought (1881)

Nature is the best posture-master.

Attributed Pearls of Thought (1881)

You must read Plato. But you must hold him at arm's length and say, 'Plato, you have delighted and edified mankind for two thousand years. What have you to say to me?'

Attributed

I read your piece on Plato. Holmes, when you strike at a king, you must kill him.

Attributed

I hung my verse in the wind
Time and tide their faults will find.

Attributed

Self-command is the main elegance.

Attributed Pearls of Thought (1881)

If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

Attributed

Plato was synthesis of Europe and Asia, and a decidedly Oriental element pervades his philosophy, giving it a sunrise color.

Attributed

His imperial muse tosses the creation like a bauble from hand to hand to embody any capricious thought that is uppermost in her mind. The remotest spaces of nature are visited, and the farthest sundered things are brought together by a subtle spiritual connection.

Attributed Pearls of Thought (1881)

The person who screams, or uses the superlative degree, or converses with heat, puts whole drawing-rooms to flight. If you wish to be loved, love measure. You must have genius or a prodigious usefulness if you will hide the want of measure.

Attributed Pearls of Thought (1881)

So much of our time is spent in preparation, so much in routine and so much in retrospect, that the amount of each person’s genius is confined to a very few hours.

Attributed

I regard it as the irresistible effect of the Copernican astronomy to have made the theological scheme of redemption absolutely incredible

Attributed

Revolutions never go backwards.

Attributed Pearls of Thought (1881)

Shallow men believe in luck.

Attributed Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Ralph Waldo Emerson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.