In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

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

More quotations from Ralph Waldo Emerson

Truth persuades by teaching, but does not teach by persuading.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

I once said cynically of a politician, 'He'll doublecross that bridge when he comes to it.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

The year hastens to its close. What is it to me? That I am twenty-five or fifty-eight is as nothing. Should I mourn that the spring flowers are gone, that the summer fruit has ripened, that the harvest is reaped, that the snow has fallen?

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

time perception age summer spring winter snow fall

More quotations tagged with “thoughts”

Thoughts give birth to a creative force that is neither elemental nor sidereal. Thoughts create a new heaven, a new firmament, a new source of energy, from which new arts flow. When a man undertakes to create something, he establishes a new heaven, as it were and from it the work that he desires to create flows into him. For such is the immensity of man that he is greater than heaven and earth.

—Philipus Aureolus Paracelsus

A man is infinitely more complicated than his thoughts.

—Paul Valéry

When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.

—Michel de Montaigne

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts, therefore guard accordingly; and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue, and reasonable nature.

—Marcus Aurelius

If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

History

11 Jul 2015 Added