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

—  Ralph Waldo Emerson

1830s, The American Scholar http://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htm (1837)
Context: Character is higher than intellect... A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Character is higher than intellect…A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think." by Ralph Waldo Emerson?
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo
Ralph Waldo Emerson 727
American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803–1882

Related quotes

Pythagoras photo

“Choose rather to be strong in soul than in body.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

"Pythagorean Ethical Sentences From Stobæus" (1904)
Choose rather to be strong of soul than strong of body.
As quoted in Florilegium, I.22, as translated in Dictionary of Quotations (1906) by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p. 396
Florilegium

Louisa May Alcott photo

“The emerging woman… will be strong-minded, strong-hearted, strong-souled, and strong-bodied… strength and beauty must go together.”

Louisa May Alcott book An Old-Fashioned Girl

Source: An Old-Fashioned Girl

“Those with easy temperaments and weak characters are more likable than admirable; those with difficult temperaments and strong characters are more admirable than likable.”

Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986) American journalist

“Confusing ‘Character’ with ‘Temperament’”
Clearing the Ground (1986)
Context: Character is something you forge for yourself; temperament is something you are born with and can only slightly modify. Some people have easy temperaments and weak characters; others have difficult temperaments and strong characters.
We are all prone to confuse the two in assessing people we associate with. Those with easy temperaments and weak characters are more likable than admirable; those with difficult temperaments and strong characters are more admirable than likable. Of course, the optimum for a person is to possess both an easy temperament and a strong character, but this is a rare combination, and few of us are that lucky. The people who get things done tend to be prickly, and the people we enjoy being with tend to be accepting, and there seems to be no way to get around this. Obviously, there are many combinations of character and temperament, in varying degrees, so that this is only a rough generalization — but I think it is one worth remembering when we make personal judgments.

Theodore Roosevelt photo

“A sound body is good; a sound mind is better; but a strong and clean character is better than either.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

1900s, Address at the Prize Day Exercises at Groton School (1904)
Context: Remember that in life, and above all in the very active, practical, workaday life on this continent, the man who wins out must be the man who works. He can not play all the time. He can not have play as his principal occupation and win out. Let him play; let him have as good a time as he can have. I have a pity that is akin to contempt for the man who does not have as good a time as he can out of life. But let him work. Let him count in the world. When he comes to the end of his life let him feel he has pulled his weight and a little more. A sound body is good; a sound mind is better; but a strong and clean character is better than either.

Neil Strauss photo

“The strong live off the weak and the clever live off the strong.”

Neil Strauss book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

Source: The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

Prevale photo

“My mother, a woman with a sweet, good, sensitive and elegant soul, with a big heart. A woman with personality, strong character and a courage that she knows no bounds.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) ​Mia madre, una donna dall'animo dolce, buono, sensibile ed elegante, con un cuore grande. Una donna con personalità, dal carattere forte ed un coraggio che non conosce limiti.
Source: prevale.net

“It was a great image, especially for areas where there was strong Muslim influence and the concomitant view prevailed that women had no souls.”

John Brunner book The Jagged Orbit

Source: The Jagged Orbit (1969), Chapter 15 (p. 49)

Marlene Dietrich photo

“The weak are more likely to make the strong weak than the strong are likely to make the weak strong.”

Marlene Dietrich (1901–1992) German-American actress and singer
Jennifer Beals photo

“When I started out, there weren't that many strong female roles, especially women who weren't just strong emotionally. I mean this is a also woman [her character on The Chicago Code, Teresa Colvin] who is strong physically, who isn't afraid of physicality. But now there are a lot more roles for women that are quite strong. I think the Academy Award nominations bespeak how many really great roles there are for women right now, and that's primarily because women are creating those roles for themselves.”

Jennifer Beals (1963) American actress and a former teen model

Interview on Good Day Atlanta (4 February 2011) http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/good_day_atl/Actress-Jennifer-Beals-of-The-Chicago-Code-20110204-gda-sd/.

Related topics