Dedicatio.com

Quotations for Every Mood





Quotations of selected author

Ralph Waldo Emerson

1803-1882. American philosopher and poet.

1. "You shall have joy, or you shall have power, said God; you shall not have both."

categories: Joy and Sadness -:- Power and Weakness

2. "Without the rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar."

source: "Essays, Second Series"

categories: Richness and Money

3. "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."

source: "Journals"

categories: Patriotism -:- Good and Evil

4. "What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered."

categories: Nature and Animals

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

categories: Life and Death

6. "Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies."

categories: Truth and Falsity

7. "Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great."

categories: Trust

8. "To be great is to be misunderstood."

source: "Essays, First Series"

categories: Success and Fame -:- Various

9. "There are two classes of poets: the poets by education and practice, these we respect; and poets by nature, these we love."

categories: Art and Culture

10. "There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant."

source: "Lectures and Biographical Sketches"

categories: Wisdom and Stupidity -:- Knowledge, Ignorance

11. "There are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. We wake from one dream into another dream."

source: "The Conduct of Life"

categories: Dreams and Desires -:- Reality and Imagination

12. "The sky is the daily bread of the eyes."

categories: Nature and Animals

13. "The only way to have a friend is to be one."

categories: Friendship and Hostility

14. "The imagination is not a talent of some men but is the health of every man."

source: "Letters and Social Aims"

categories: Reality and Imagination

15. "Sorrow makes us all children again, destroys all differences of intellect. The wisest knows nothing."

source: "Journals"

categories: Intellect, Judgement -:- Sorrow and Nostalgia

16. "Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis."

source: "Journals"

categories: Various

17. "Some play at chess, some at cards, some at the Stock Exchange. I prefer to play at Cause and Effect."

source: "The Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson"

categories: Various

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

source: "The Conduct of Life"

categories: Human -:- Manners and Ethics

19. "Silence is a solvent that destroys personality, and gives us leave to be great and universal."

source: "Essays, First Series"

categories: Oration and Silence

20. "Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances. Strong men believe in cause and effect."

source: "Conduct of Life"

categories: Power and Weakness

21. "Raphael paints wisdom; Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it."

categories: Art and Culture -:- Science and Technology -:- Wisdom and Stupidity

22. "Poetry must be new as foam, and as old as the rock."

categories: Art and Culture

23. "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."

categories: Success and Fame -:- Work and Laziness

24. "Never try to make anyone like yourself. You know, and God knows, that one of you is enough."

categories: Human

25. "Men are what their mothers made them."

source: "The Conduct of Life"

categories: Family and Loneliness -:- Woman and Man

26. "Live, let live, and help live."

categories: Life and Death

27. "Literature is the effort of man to indemnify himself for the wrongs of his condition."

categories: Art and Culture

28. "Life itself is a bubble and a skepticism, and a sleep within sleep."

source: "Essays, Second Series"

categories: Life and Death -:- Reality and Imagination

29. "If we find a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads."

categories: Intellect, Judgement -:- Wisdom and Stupidity

30. "I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching."

source: "Essays: First Series"

categories: God and Religion

31. "Guard your own spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds."

categories: Memory

32. "God builds his temple in the heart on the ruins of churches and religions."

source: "The Conduct of Life"

categories: God and Religion

33. "Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed."

source: "Essays, First Series"

categories: Friendship and Hostility

34. "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

categories: Bravery and Fear -:- Work and Laziness -:- Talent and Genius

35. "Courage charms us, because it indicates that a man loves an idea better than all things in the world, that he is thinking neither of his bed, nor his dinner, nor his money, but will venture all to put in act the invisible thought of his mind."

source: "Journals"

categories: Bravery and Fear

36. "Common sense is genius dressed up in work clothes."

categories: Intellect, Judgement -:- Talent and Genius

37. "Cause and effect, the chancellors of God."

source: "Essays"

categories: Destiny and Fate

38. "Cause and effect are two sides of one fact."

categories: Various

39. "Art is a jealous mistress."

source: "The Conduct of Life"

categories: Art and Culture

40. "All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen."

categories: God and Religion

41. "All diseases run into one: old age."

categories: Health and Alcohol -:- Youth and Age

42. "Alcohol, hashish, prussic acid, strychnine are weak dilutions. The surest poison is time."

source: "Letters and Social Aims"

categories: Health and Alcohol

43. "A man's fortunes are the fruit of his character. A man's friends are his magnetisms."

source: "The Conduct of Life"

categories: Friendship and Hostility -:- Human

44. "A man is made by the books he reads."

categories: Education

45. "A man is known by the books he reads, by the company he keeps, by the praise he gives, by his dress, by his tastes, by his distastes, by the stories he tells, by his gait, by the notion of his eye, by the look of his house, of his chamber; for nothing on earth is solitary but every thing hath affinities infinite."

source: "Journals"

categories: Human

46. "A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life: he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days."

source: "Society and Solitude"

categories: Work and Laziness

47. "A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer."

categories: Bravery and Fear

48. "A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud."

source: "Essays: First Series"

categories: Friendship and Hostility


Privacy Policy
Valid XHTML 1.1 Valid CSS!
2007-2009, collected and compiled by Kazimierz Matan
Layout based on template by Darren Hester, DesignsByDarren.com