Quote

Don't be a cynic and disconsolate preacher. Don't bewail and moan. Omit the negative propositions. Challenge us with incessant affirmatives.

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
Propositions
Cynicism
Preacher
Disconsolate
Challenge
Bewail
Negative
Omit
Challenges
Moan
Cynic
Incessant

More quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image
The population of the world is a conditional population these are not the best, but the best that could live in the existing state of soils, gases, animals, and morals: the best that could yet live there shall be a better, please God.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Shall we then judge a country by the majority, or by the minority? By the minority, surely.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Cupid is a casuist, a mystic, and a cabalist,-- Can your lurking thought surprise, And interpret your device, . . . . All things wait for and divine him,-- How shall I dare to malign him?
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The highest compact we can make with our fellow is - Let there be truth between us two forevermore.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Who hears me, who understands me, becomes mine, a possession for all time.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The history of reform is always identical it is the comparison of the idea with the fact. Our modes of living are not agreeable to our imagination. We suspect they are unworthy. We arraign our daily employments.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Works of the intellect are great only by comparison with each other.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Every wall is a door.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
If I am the devil's child, I will live then, by the devil.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Man is a shrewd inventor, and is ever taking the hint of a new machine from his own structure, adapting some secret of his own anatomy in iron, wood, and leather, to some required function in the work of the world.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Everything that is popular, it has been said, deserves the attention of philosophers: and this is for the obvious reason, that although it may not be of any worth in itself, yet it characterizes the people.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Strange is this alien despotism of Sleep which takes two persons lying in each other's arms & separates them leagues, continents,asunder.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Spurious prudence, making the senses final, is the god of sots and cowards, and is the subject of all comedy. It is nature's joke, and therefore literature's. True prudence limits this sensualism by admitting the knowledge of an internal and real world.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
A child convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. The reward for a thing well done, is to have done it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Genius is the power to labor better and more availably. Deserve thy genius: exalt it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
I do not speak with any fondness but the language of coolest history, when I say that Boston commands attention as the town whichwas appointed in the destiny of nations to lead the civilization of North America.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
There can be no high civility without a deep morality, though it may not always call itself by that name.
Ralph Waldo Emerson