Ralph Waldo Emerson
459 quotations
Repose and cheerfulness are the badge of the gentleman -- repose in energy.
The only gift is a portion of thyself.
People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never.
Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.
We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten.
We are a puny and fickle folk. Avarice, hesitation, and following are our diseases.
Good breeding, a union of kindness and independence.
We aim above the mark to hit the mark.
His heart was as great as the world, but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong.
Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
In failing circumstances no one can be relied on to keep their integrity.
'Tis the old secret of the gods that they come in low disguises.
The dice of God are always loaded.
There is a crack in everything God has made.
Them meaning of good and bad, of better and worse, is simply helping or hurting.
It is very hard to be simple enough to be good.
The less government we have the better.
I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new.
No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.
Not he is great who can alter matter, but he who can alter my state of mind.
The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough.
The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men around to his opinion twenty years later.
The search after the great men is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of manhood.
To be great is to be misunderstood.