Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tis not important how the hero does this or this, but what he is. What he is will appear in every gesture and syllable. In this way the moment and the character are one.

A man's fortunes are the fruit of his character.

for the hand can never execute any thing higher than the character can inspire.

What will you have? quoth God; pay for it, and take it.

The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end.

They should own who can administer, not they who hoard and conceal; not they who, the greater proprietors they are, are only the greater beggars, but they whose work carves out work for more, opens a path for all. For he is the rich man in whom the people are rich, and he is the poor man in whom the people are poor; and how to give all access to the masterpieces of art and nature is the problem of civilization.

Good bye, proud world! I'm going home; Thou art not my friend, and I'm not thine

Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in the seed.

There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all parts, that is, the poet.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting — a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

For every stoic was a stoic; but in Christendom where is the Christian?

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting — a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.