Ralph Waldo Emerson - Quodid

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Picture of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society and conformity.

Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson

What I need is someone who will make me do what I can.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

doing inspiration capability

It is easy to live for others; everybody does. I call on you to live for yourselves.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

life others self-care easy

There is one mind common to all individual men. Every man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once admitted to the right of reason is made a freeman of the whole estate. What Plato has thought, he may think; what a saint has felt, he may feel; what at any time has befallen any man, he can understand. Who hath access to this universal mind is a party to all that is or can be done, for this is the only and sovereign agent.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

humanity history commonality mind power

Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

truth power self-reliance integrity

The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

friendship friends virtue

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as strong to think.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

strength intelligence character intellect soul

The growth of the intellect is spontaneous in every expansion. The mind that grows could not predict the times, the means, the mode of that spontaneity. God enters by a private door into every individual.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

God intelligence intellect spontaneity

Our best thoughts come from others.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing. We cannot use our hands, or our legs, or our eyes, or our arms. We do not know an edible root in the woods. We cannot tell our course by the stars, nor the hour of the day by the sun. It is well if we can swim and skate. We are afraid of a horse, of a cow, of a dog, of a cat, of a spider. Far better was the Roman rule to teach a boy nothing that he could not learn standing.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

He who would be a great soul in the future, must be a great soul now.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

future soul greatness

Children are all foreigners.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

wonder children foreignness

Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

truth humanity society suicide

In the Fiji islands, it appears, cannibalism is now familiar. They eat their own wives and children. We only devour widows' houses, and great merchants outwit and absorb the substance of small ones, and every man feeds on his neighbor's labor if he can. It is a milder form of cannibalism.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

politics power labor analogy cannibalism

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

speech interest

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

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