Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Emerson Quotes



Rebel with a Cause: Emerson was ahead of his time. A philosopher, writer, lecturer. He believed in humanity, in the value of the human experience, in nature. His words, though written over 150 years ago, are timeless reminders of how to live life well.


A friend is one before whom I may think aloud.

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.

All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.

All our progress is an unfolding, like a vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

As we grow old…the beauty steals inward.

Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.

Character is higher than intellect... A great soul will be strong to live, as well as to think.

Children are all foreigners.

Colleges hate geniuses, just as convents hate saints.

Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for his competitors, for it is that which all are practising every day while they live.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Always do what you are afraid to do.

What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship

It is not the length of life, but the depth.

The earth laughs in flowers.

Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.

All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”

I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.

Life is a journey, not a destination.

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

Make the most of yourself....for that is all there is of you.

Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

Be silly. Be honest. Be kind.

Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis.

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.

Shallow men believe in luck or in circumstance. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine.”

Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.

When friendships are real, they are not glass threads or frost work, but the solidest things we can know.

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.


Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.

Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm.


Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.

Give all to love; obey thy heart.

God enters by a private door into every individual.

He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.

I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea, and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the Stern Fact, the Sad Self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from.

If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.

1 comment:

  1. I love Emmerson. Thank you for a great post.
    Emily

    ReplyDelete