Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes - 36 quotes

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, poet, and a leading figure in the Transcendentalist movement. He was born on May 25, 1803, in Boston, Massachusetts. Emerson was the son of a Unitarian minister. He attended Harvard University, graduating in 1821, and later studied ... show more

quote icon That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances...Strong men believe in cause and effect.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon There is no way to success in our art, but to take off your coat, grind paint, and work like a digger on the railroad, all day and every day.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon If a man has failed, you will find he has dreamed instead of working

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon There is a serene Providence which rules the fate of nations...It makes its own instruments, creates the man for the time, trains him in poverty, inspires his genius, and arms him for his task.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon And what greater calamity can fall upon a nation, than the loss of worship? Then all things go to decay

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon I believe that our own experience instructs us that the secret of education lies in respecting the pupil. It is not for you to choose what he shall know, what he shall do. It is chosen and foreordained and he only holds the key to his own secret.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that...imitation is suicide....none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon “That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon “We acquire the strength we have overcome.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon Prayer that craves a particular commodity, -- anything less than all good, -- is vicious. Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view. It is the soliloquy of a beholding and jubilant soul. It is the spirit of God pronouncing his works good. But prayer as a means to effect a private end is meanness and theft. It supposes dualism and not unity in nature and consciousness. As soon as the man is at one with God, he will not beg. He will then see prayer in all action. The prayer of the farmer kneeling in his field to weed it, the prayer of the rower kneeling with the stroke of his oar, are true prayers heard throughout nature, though for cheap ends.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon What is success? To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived; This is to have succeeded.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well, and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumberred with your old nonsense. This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well, and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon That which we are, we are all the while teaching,not voluntarily, but involuntarily.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon "To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them"

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon The future belongs to those who prepare for it.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon What a new face courage puts on everything!

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon Allow yourself to trust joy and embrace it. You will find you dance with everything.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon Money often costs too much.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon Life consists of what man is thinking about all day.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon What do we live for if not to make life less difficult for others.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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quote icon What you do shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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