Quote

Begin and proceed on a settled conviction that but little is permitted to any man to do or to know, and if he complies with the first grand laws, he shall do well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Age: 78 †
Born: 1803
Born: May 25
Died: 1882
Died: April 27
Biographer
Diarist
Essayist
Philosopher
Poet
Writer
Boston
Massachusetts
R. W. Emerson
Waldo Emerson
Well
Begin
Complies
First
Shall
Proceed
Men
Law
Permitted
Success
Settled
Littles
Grand
Little
Conviction
Wells
Achievement
Firsts
Laws

More quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image
Every individual strives to grow and exclude, to the extremities of the universe, and to impose the law of its being on every other creature.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
A beautiful woman is a practical poet, taming her savage mate, planting tenderness, hope and eloquence in all whom she approaches.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
A friend is Janus-faced: he looks to the past and the future. He is the child of all my foregoing hours, the prophet of those to come, and the harbinger of a greater friend.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The great will not condescend to take anything seriously.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
It is for want of self-culture that the superstition of Travelling, whose idols are Italy, England, Egypt, retains its fascinationfor all educated Americans.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
In spite of warnings, change rarely occurs until the status quo becomes more painful than change. People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no person can sincerely try to help another without helping him or herself. Serve and you shall be served. If you love and serve people, you cannot, by any hiding or stratagem, escape the remuneration.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Truth is beautiful within and without, forevermore.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The need for a rational consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance and it straightens itself to the average tendency.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Good criticism is very rare and always precious.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
How silent, how spacious, what room for all, yet without place to insert an atom--in graceful succession, in equal fullness, in balanced beauty, the dance of the hours goes forward still. Like an odor of incense, like a strain of music, like a sleep, it is inexact and boundless. It will not be dissected, nor unraveled, nor shown.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Doing well is the result of doing good. That's what capitalism is all about.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Enlarge not thy destiny, said the oracle: endeavor not to do more than is given thee in charge.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
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.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
One lesson we learn early, that in spite of seeming difference, men are all of one pattern. We readily assume this with our mates, and are disappointed and angry if we find that we are premature, and that their watches are slower than ours. In fact, the only sin which we never forgive in each other is difference of opinion.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Every word which is used to express a moral or intellectual fact, if traced to its root, is found to be borrowed from some material appearance.
Ralph Waldo Emerson