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The less a man thinks or knows about his virtues, the better we like him.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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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
Thinking
Like
Virtues
Thinks
Accepting
Virtue
Less
Better
Men
More quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is bad enough that our geniuses cannot do anything useful, but it is worse that no man is fit for society who has fine traits.He is admired at a distance, but he cannot come near without appearing a cripple.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Knowledge, Virtue, Power are the victories of man over his necessities, his march to the dominion of the world.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The wheels and springs of man are all set to the hypothesis of the permanence of nature. We are not built like a ship to be tossed, but like a house to stand.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Colleges, in like manner, have their indispensable office,--to teach elements. But they can only highly serve us, when they aim not to drill, but to create when they gather from far every ray of various genius to their hospitable halls, and, by the concentrated fires, set the hearts of their youth on flame.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The doctrine of Necessity or Destiny is the doctrine of Toleration.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I do not hesitate to read. all good books in translations. What is really best in any book is translatable-any real insight or broad human sentiment.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
What is man born for but to be a Reformer, a Remaker of what man has made? A renouncer of lies a restorer of truth and good? Imitating that great Nature which embossoms us all, and which sleeps no moment on an old past, but every hour repairs herself, yielding us every morning a new day, with every breath a new life?
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Words are finite organs of the infinite mind. They cannot cover the dimensions of what is in truth. They break, chop, and impoverish it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I now require this of all pictures, that they domesticate me, not that they dazzle me. Pictures must not be too picturesque. Nothing astonishes men so much as common-sense and plain dealing. All great actions have been simple, and all great pictures are.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
One must be an inventor to read well.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sculpture and painting have the effect of teaching us manners and abolishing hurry.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I know of no such unquestionable badge and ensign of a sovereign mind as that of tenacity of purpose.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
People wish to be settled only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Eyes...They speak all languages.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
We judge of man's wisdom by his hope.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Profound sincerity is the only basis of talent as of character.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
If we meet no gods, it is because we harbor none. If there is grandeur in you, you will find grandeur in porters and sweeps.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The virtue in most request is conformity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
