Ralph Waldo Emerson
459 quotations
Make yourself necessary to somebody.
Necessity does everything well.
We do what we must, and call it by the best names.
No orator can top the one who can give good nicknames.
The reason why men do not obey us is because they see the mud at the bottom of our eye.
As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.
The only sin that we never forgive in each other is a difference in opinion.
Be an opener of doors.
Every wall is a door.
Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good.
Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring.
Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.
Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.
Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself; nothing, but the triumph of principles.
The people are to be taken in small doses.
By persisting in your path, though you forfeit the little, you gain the great.
The worst of charity is that the lives you are asked to preserve are not worth preserving.
Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated about among men of thought.
Genius Borrows nobly.
Whenever you are sincerely pleased you are nourished.
Only poetry inspires poetry.
Painting was called silent poetry and poetry speaking painting.
Poetry must be as new as foam and as old as the rock.
The arts and inventions of each period are only its costume, and do not invigorate men.