Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

About Ralph Waldo Emerson

Portrait 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 champion of individualism and critical thinking, as well as...

More quotations from Ralph Waldo Emerson

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

life experiment

Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

honesty truth privacy

In a virtuous community, men of sense and of principle will always be placed at the head of affairs. In a declining state of public morals, men will be so blinded to their true interests as to put the incapable and unworthy at the helm. It is therefore vain to complain of the follies or crimes of a government. We must lay our hands on our own hearts and say, "Here is the sin that makes the public sin.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

sin morality government interests

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

possibility plants trees forests

Every artist was first an amateur.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

learning art amateurism