Quote

The pulpit and the press have many commonplaces denouncing the thirst for wealth, but if men should take these moralists at their word, and leave off aiming to be rich, the moralists would rush to rekindle at all hazards this love of power in the people, lest civilization should be undone.

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
Many
Press
Pulpit
Would
Civilization
Hazards
Men
Wealth
Lest
Commonplaces
Love
Leave
Undone
Rekindle
People
Rich
Commonplace
Denouncing
Word
Thirst
Moralists
Power
Rush
Moralist
Take
Presses
Aiming

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If the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways, I keep and pass and turn again.
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Divine persons are character born, or, to borrow a phrase from Napoleon, they are victory organized.
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All things are moral. That soul, which within us is a sentiment, outside of us is a law. We feel its inspiration out there in history we can see its fatal strength.
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The noblest ministry of nature is to stand as the apparition of God.
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Thought dissolves the material universe by carrying the mind up into a sphere where all is plastic.
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The soul of God is poured into the world through the thoughts of men.
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Conversation is a game of circles.
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These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world.
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Nature forever puts a premium on reality. What is done for effect is seen to be done for effect what is done for love is felt to be done for love. A man inspires affection and honor because he was not lying in wait for these.
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An expense of ends to means is fateMorganization tyrannizing over character. The menagerie, or forms and powers of the spine, is a book of fate: the bill of the bird, the skull of the snake, determines tyrannically its limits.
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It is noticed, that the consideration of the great periods and spaces of astronomy induces a dignity of mind, and an indifferenceto death.
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A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we awake from dreams.
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Poverty, Frost, Famine, Rain, Disease, are the beadles and guardsmen that hold us to Common Sense.
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No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.
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The walking of Man is falling forwards.
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The masters painted for joy, and knew not that virtue had gone out of them. They could not paint the like in cold blood. The masters of English lyric wrote their songs so. It was a fine efflorescence of fine powers.
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There is a capacity of virtue in us, and there is a capacity of vice to make your blood creep.
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My evening visitors, if they cannot see the clock should find the time in my face.
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The student is to read history actively and not passively to esteem his own life the text, and books the commentary. Thus compelled, the muse of history will utter oracles as never to those who do not respect themselves.
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Nature never rhymes her children, nor makes two men alike. When we see a great man, we fancy a resemblance to some historical person, and predict the sequel of his character and fortune, a result which he is sure to disappoint. None will ever solve the problem of his character according to our prejudice, but only in his high unprecedented way.
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