Quote

Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear.

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
Common
Twilight
Puddles
Perfect
Snow
Exhilaration
Fear
Enjoyed
Brink
Without
Glad
Clouded
Good
Sky
Crossing
Fortune
Crossings
Thoughts
Bare
Special
Reliance
Occurrence

More quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image
Instead of feeling a poverty when we encounter a great man, let us treat the new comer like a travelling geologist, who passes through our estate, and shows us good slate, or limestone, or anthracite, in our brush pasture.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The eye is the best of artists.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The cardinal virtue of a teacher [is] to protect the pupil from his own influence.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
My life is superficial, takes no root in the deep world I ask, When shall I die, and be relieved of the responsibility of seeinga Universe which I do not use? I wish to exchange this flash-of-lightning faith for continuous daylight, this fever-glow for a benign climate.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
We take care of our health we lay up money we make our roof tight, and our clothing sufficient but who provides wisely that he shall not be wanting in the best property of all, -friends?
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
When I was praised I lost my time, for instantly I turned around to look at the work I had thought slightly of, and that day I made nothing new.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Man is the will, and woman the sentiment. In this ship of humanity, Will is the rudder, and Sentiment the sail when woman affects to steer, the rudder is only a masked sail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
All sensible people are selfish, and nature is tugging at every contract to make the terms of it fair.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
To be able to discern that what is true is true, and that what is false is false,--this is the mark and character of intelligence.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The ancestor of every action is a thought.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
What we call results are beginnings.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Slavery it is that makes slavery freedom, freedom. The slavery of women happened when the men were slaves of kings.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
Why has my motley diary no jokes? Because it is a soliloquy and every man is grave alone.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
You cannot do a kindness too soon.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
For the existing world is not a dream, and cannot with impunity be treated as a dream neither is it a disease but it is the ground on which you stand, it is the mother of whom you were born.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
When a man does not write his poetry, it escapes by other vents through him.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
If the tongue had not been framed for articulation, man would still be a beast in the forest.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Image
The intellect is vagabond, and our system of education fosters restlessness. Our minds travel when our bodies are forced to stay at home. We imitate and what is imitation but the travelling of the mind?
Ralph Waldo Emerson