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

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little coarse, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice? Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Traveling is a fool's paradise. . . . I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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

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

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More quotations tagged with “bravery”

Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away.

—Thomas Fuller

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Bravery is feeling fear but doing the thing anyway.

—Jennifer Donnelly in The Wild Rose

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Ideally, one should have a great deal of courage and strength, but not boast or make a big show of it. Then, in times of need, one should rise to the occasion and fight bravely for what is right.

—14th Dalai Lama

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Common experience shows how much rarer is moral courage than physical bravery. A thousand men will march to the mouth of the cannon where one man will dare espouse an unpopular cause.

—Clarence Darrow

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If you can't be brave then be determined. And you will end up in the same place.

—Lisa Scottoline in Killer Smile

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