Quotes from work
Music

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument, that makes a poem, — a thought so passionate and alive, that, like the spirit of a plant or an animal, it has an architecture of its own, and adorns nature with a new thing.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson Music

1840s, Essays: Second Series (1844), The Poet

“Language is the archives of history … Language is fossil poetry.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson Music

1840s, Essays: Second Series (1844), The Poet

“Those who are esteemed umpires of taste are often persons who have acquired some knowledge of admired pictures or sculptures, and have an inclination for whatever is elegant; but if you inquire whether they are beautiful souls, and whether their own acts are like fair pictures, you learn that they are selfish and sensual.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson Music

1840s, Essays: Second Series (1844), The Poet

“We are symbols, and inhabit symbols.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson Music

1840s, Essays: Second Series (1844), The Poet

“What point of morals, of manners, of economy, of philosophy, of religion, of taste, of the conduct of life, has he not settled? What mystery has he not signified his knowledge of? What office, or function, or district of man's work, has he not remembered? What king has he not taught state, as Talma taught Napoleon? What maiden has not found him finer than her delicacy? What lover has he not outloved? What sage has he not outseen? What gentleman has he not instructed in the rudeness of his behavior?”

Ralph Waldo Emerson Music

Shakespeare; or, The Poet
1850s, Representative Men (1850)

“Thought is the property of him who can entertain it, and of him who can adequately place it.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson Music

Shakespeare; or, The Poet
1850s, Representative Men (1850)

“For poetry was all written before time was, and whenever we are so finely organized that we can penetrate into that region where the air is music, we hear those primal warblings, and attempt to write them down, but we lose ever and anon a word, or a verse, and substitute something of our own, and thus miswrite the poem. The men of more delicate ear write down these cadences more faithfully, and these transcripts, though imperfect, become the songs of the nations. For nature is as truly beautiful as it is good, or as it is reasonable, and must as much appear, as it must be done, or be known. Words and deeds are quite indifferent modes of the divine energy. Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson Music

1840s, Essays: Second Series (1844), The Poet

Similar authors

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

Ralph Waldo Emerson727

American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803–1882

Léon Bloy photo

Léon Bloy22

French writer, poet and essayist None

Giacomo Leopardi photo

Giacomo Leopardi18

Italian poet, philosopher and writer None

Walt Whitman photo

Walt Whitman181

American poet, essayist and journalist None

Henri-Frédéric Amiel photo

Henri-Frédéric Amiel50

Swiss philosopher and poet None

Henry David Thoreau photo

Henry David Thoreau385

1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitio… None

Thomas Carlyle photo

Thomas Carlyle481

Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian… None

Robert Louis Stevenson photo

Robert Louis Stevenson118

Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer None

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

Samuel Taylor Coleridge220

English poet, literary critic and philosopher None

Oliver Wendell Holmes photo

Oliver Wendell Holmes135

Poet, essayist, physician None

Similar authors

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

Ralph Waldo Emerson727

American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803–1882

Léon Bloy photo

Léon Bloy22

French writer, poet and essayist None

Giacomo Leopardi photo

Giacomo Leopardi18

Italian poet, philosopher and writer None

Walt Whitman photo

Walt Whitman181

American poet, essayist and journalist None

Henri-Frédéric Amiel photo

Henri-Frédéric Amiel50

Swiss philosopher and poet None