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

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 prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society and...

More quotations from Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

friendship friends virtue

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

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

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

More quotations tagged with “intellect”

There was just something about her dying that I had understood but not really understood, if you know what I mean. I mean, you can know someone is dying on an intellectual level, but emotionally it hasn't really hit you.

—Jesse Andrews in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

intellect death loss emotion

If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be too cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.

—Annie Dillard

love cynicism intellect nonsense affairs

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.

—Aldous Huxley

intellect sex interest

An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ranger.

intellect music snobs

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.

intelligence knowledge intellect interest

History

11 Feb 2013 Added