Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life,—no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground,—my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space,—all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.

From the views I have already expressed, you will infer the sad conviction, which I share, I believe, with numbers, of the universal decay and now almost death of faith in society. The soul is not preached. The Church seems to totter to its fall, almost all life extinct. On this occasion, any complaisance would be criminal which told you, whose hope and commission it is to preach the faith of Christ, that the faith of Christ is preached. It

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

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.

Truths will harmonize; and as for the falsities and mistakes, they will speedily die of themselves.

It is a proverb that "courtesy costs nothing"; but calculation might come to value love for its profit. Love is fabled to be blind, but kindness is necessary to perception; love is not a hood, but an eye-water.

I hate quotes: tell me what you know.

That divided and rebel mind, that distrust of a sentiment because our arithmetic has computed the strength and means opposed to our purpose, these [158] have not. Their mind being whole, their eye is as yet unconquered, and when we look in their faces we are disconcerted.

The true poem is the poet's mind; the true ship is the ship-builder.

He thought it happier to be dead, To die for Beauty, than live for bread.

Love is like wildflowers; it's often found in the most unlikely places.

The crowds and centuries of books are only commentary and elucidation, echoes and weakeners of those few great voices of Time.