Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.

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

The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.

For everything you have missed,
you have gained something else,
and for everything you gain,
you lose something else.

There is creative reading as well as creative writing.

We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory. Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions.

"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."

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

To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and 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 even one life has breathed
easier because you have lived;
This is to have succeeded.

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.

A man is what he thinks about all day long.

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.

People wish to be settled. Only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them.

That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved.

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

The best effect of fine persons is felt after we have left their presence.

Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your reading have been to you like the blast of triumph out of Shakespeare, Seneca, Moses, John and Paul.