Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes On Life, Friendship, Success

A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.

There are other measures of self-respect for a man, than the number of clean shirts he puts on every day.

Every fact is related on one side to sensation, and, on the other, to morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two sides, to find the other: given the upper, to find the under side.

Every ship that comes to America got its chart from Columbus.

For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?

We see God face to face every hour, and know the savor of Nature.

'Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakenly meant for his ear; the profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader; the profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until it is discovered by an equal mind and heart.

Manners require time, and nothing is more vulgar than haste.

Every artist was first an amateur.

There are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. We wake from one dream into another dream.

For flowers that bloom about our feet; For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet; For song of bird, and hum of bee; For all things fair we hear or see, Father in heaven, we thank Thee!

There is creative reading as well as creative writing.

We are a puny and fickle folk. Avarice, hesitation, and following are our diseases.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare To die, and leave their children free, Bid Time and Nature gently spare The shaft we raise to them and thee.

Reality is a sliding door.

The years teach much which the days never knew.

Life is a perpetual instruction in cause and effect.

Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests, and mines, and stone quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.