Discover the profound wisdom of Ralph Waldo Emerson through his timeless quotes. From inspiring words on self-discovery and happiness to embracing life's adventures, delve into the brilliance of Emerson's thoughts that will leave you pondering and uplifted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, known as Waldo, was a renowned American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet. He played a leading role in the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century and was regarded as a champion of individualism. Emerson's philosophy of transcendentalism is best expressed in his essay "Nature" and his speech "The American Scholar," which were highly influential in American intellectual thought. His essays, including "Self-Reliance" and "The Over-Soul," explore ideas of individuality, freedom, and the connection between the soul and the world. Emerson's work had a profound impact on future thinkers, writers, and poets.
Born in Boston in 1803 to a Unitarian minister father and a mother of English ancestry, Emerson grew up surrounded by strong female influences. He attended Harvard College and later became a teacher before spending two years living in nature to study and write. During this time, he faced poor health and traveled to seek warmer climates. It was during his stay in St. Augustine that he encountered the harsh reality of slavery firsthand. This experience further shaped his beliefs and advocacy for individual freedom.
Overall, Ralph Waldo Emerson's ideas on transcendentalism influenced American intellectual thought significantly. His belief in individuality, freedom, and mankind's potential for realization has left a lasting impact on subsequent generations of thinkers and writers alike.
“For what are they all in their high conceit,
When man in the bush with God may meet?”
Good Bye
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Variant: For what are they all in their high conceit,
When man in the bush with God may meet?
“Man Thinking must not be subdued by his instruments.”
1830s, The American Scholar http://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htm (1837)
1830s, The American Scholar http://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htm (1837)
Introduction
1830s, Nature http://www.emersoncentral.com/nature.htm (1836)
“Love not the flower they pluck and know it not,
And all their botany is Latin names.”
Blight
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“The sublime is excited in me by the great stoical doctrine, Obey thyself.”
The Divinity College Address (1838)
The Natural History of Intellect (1893)
“The heroic cannot be the common, nor can the common be the heroic.”
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Quotation and Originality
Sacrifice
1860s, May-Day and Other Pieces (1867)
Variant: Though love repine, and reason chafe,
There came a voice without reply, —
"'Tis man's perdition to be safe,
When for the truth he ought to die."
12 February 1851; compare the remark of John Wilkes about Samuel Johnson, "Liberty is as ridiculous in his mouth as Religion in mine" (20 March 1778), quoted in The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) by James Boswell.
1820s, Journals (1822–1863)
Astræa
1840s, Poems (1847)
Quoted in Robert D. Richardson, Jr., Emerson, the Mind On Fire (Univ. of Calif Press 1995), p. 124
“Alcohol, hashish, prussic acid, strychnine are weak dilutions. The surest poison is time.”
Poetry and Imagination
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Books, Letters and Social Aims http://www.rwe.org/comm/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=5&id=74&Itemid=149 (1876)
Each and All, st. 3
1840s, Poems (1847)
Variant: I wiped away the weeds and foam,
And fetched my sea-born treasures home;
But the poor, unsightly, noisome things
Had left their beauty on the shore
With the sun, and the sand, and the wild uproar.
“For what avail the plough or sail,
Or land or life, if freedom fail?”
Boston
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples.”
Worship
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Circles
“Great geniuses have the shortest biographies.”
Plato; or, The Philosopher
1850s, Representative Men (1850)
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Quotation and Originality
Variant: Genius borrows nobly. When Shakespeare is charged with debts to his authors, Landor replies: "Yet he was more original than his originals. He breathed upon dead bodies and brought them into life".
“Happy is the house that shelters a friend!”
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Friendship
1840s, Essays: Second Series (1844), Experience
“I hung my verse in the wind
Time and tide their faults will find.”
"The Test", as quoted in Emerson As A Poet (1883) by Joel Benton, p. 40
In Memoriam
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Social Aims
Sometimes condensed to "What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say."
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Books, Letters and Social Aims http://www.rwe.org/comm/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=5&id=74&Itemid=149 (1876)
“There are two laws discrete
Not reconciled,
Law for man, and law for thing.”
Ode Inscribed to W.H. Channing http://www.emersoncentral.com/poems/ode_inscribed_to_william_h_channing.htm, st. 9
1840s, Poems (1847)
St. 2
1840s, Poems (1847), The Problem http://www.emersoncentral.com/poems/problem.htm
Boston Hymn, st. 17
1860s, May-Day and Other Pieces (1867)
“Every genuine work of art has as much reason for being as the earth and the sun.”
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Art
The Snow-Storm http://www.emersoncentral.com/poems/snow_storm.htm
1840s, Poems (1847)
“Men are what their mothers made them.”
Fate
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)
Brahma, st. 3
1860s, May-Day and Other Pieces (1867)
1830s, The American Scholar http://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htm (1837)
“Each man is a hero and an oracle to somebody.”
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Quotation and Originality
“Beauty is the mark God sets upon virtue.”
Source: 1830s, Nature http://www.emersoncentral.com/nature.htm (1836), Ch. 3, Beauty
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance
Society and Solitude, Art
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Heroism feels and never reasons and therefore is always right.”
Heroism
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Good bye, proud world! I'm going home;
Thou art not my friend; I am not thine.”
Good Bye
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Variant: Good bye, proud world! I'm going home;
Thou art not my friend; I am not thine.
“The blazing evidence of immortality is our dissatisfaction with any other solution.”
July 1855
1820s, Journals (1822–1863)
Give All to Love http://www.emersoncentral.com/poems/give_all_to_love.htm, st. 1
1840s, Poems (1847)
“We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents.”
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Compensation
“Almost all people descend to meet.”
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Friendship
“Children are all foreigners.”
25 September 1839
1820s, Journals (1822–1863)
“The gods sell anything and to everybody at a fair price.”
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Quotation and Originality
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Art
“Nature magically suits the man to his fortunes, by making these the fruit of his character.”
Fate
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)
