Ralph Waldo Emerson
459 quotations
The great majority of men are bundles of beginnings.
Religion is as effectually destroyed by bigotry as by indifference.
If I cannot brag of knowing something, then I brag of not knowing it; at any rate, brag.
Men lose their tempers in defending their taste.
Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.
We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples.
All the great ages have been ages of belief.
Great geniuses have the shortest biographies.
There is properly no history; only biography.
If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.
Never read any book that is not a year old.
Our high respect for a well read person is praise enough for literature.
Some books leave us free and some books make us free.
There is creative reading as well as creative writing.
Every man is a consumer and ought to be a producer.
Every calamity is a spur and valuable hint.
People wish to be settled. It is only as far as they are unsettled that there is any hope for them.
No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.
Judge of your natural character by what you do in dreams.
Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.
People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.
Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.
Do what you know and perception is converted into character.
Give no bounties: make equal laws: secure life and prosperity and you need not give alms.
So of cheerfulness, or a good temper, the more it is spent, the more it remains.