Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Body, Mind and Spirit
Categories: achievement success goals vision mission enthusiasm life

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Artist's Way
Categories: past future fear strength courage

To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children, to earn the approbation of honest critics; to appreciate beauty; to give of one's self, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived--that is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: laughter love friendship respect children beauty appreciation volunteer play enthusiasm life living success

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: success failure character

The world belongs to the energetic.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: energy effort work success life

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: friendship relationships mistakes

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: peace self-awareness serenity

Discontent is want of self-reliance; it is infirmity of will.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: contentment sadness self-reliance will character

Five great enemies to peace inhabit us: avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride. If those enemies were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: peace serenity greed ambition anger envy pride discontent unhappiness

To fill the hour, and leave no creavice...that is happiness.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: happiness work leisure life

A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: relief happiness work peace

Unhappy is the man whom man can make unhappy.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: happiness peace character self-esteem

When I first open my eyes upon the morning meadows and look out upon the beautiful world, I thank God I am alive.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: nature beauty appreciation

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: opportunity life

Want is a growing giant whom the coat of Have was never large enough to cover.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: greed want desire

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: kindness friendship relationships love volunteer giving sharing

The only gift is a portion of thyself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: giving sharing relationships friendship love volunteer

Make yourself necessary to somebody.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: life action success work

We take care of our health, we lay up money, we make our roof tight and our clothing sufficient, but who provides wisely that he shall not be wanting in the best property of all--friends?
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: friendship relationships love life

The only way to have a friend is to be one.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: friendship relationships love sharing giving

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: friendship relationships authenticity love speech truth

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: friendship relationships love appreciation

The disease with which the human mind now labors is want of faith.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: faith character failure

Self-command is the main elegance.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: self-control self-esteem self-confidence character success

Self-trust is the first secret of success.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: self-confidence self-esteem success trust character

To be simple is to be great.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: simplicity humility success greatness character authenticity honesty integrity

It is proof of high culture to say the greatest matters in the simplest way.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: simplicity speech truth directness honesty truth authenticity

Who loses a day loses life.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: life time living priorities

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: life time celebration attitude

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.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: time leisure life value

He has not learned the first lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: life fear success growth change courage

A day is a miniature eternity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: time life priorities

This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do with it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: time life appreciation purpose meaning opportunity action

The present is an edifice which God cannot rebuild.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: time present meaning value

We can see well into the past; we can guess shrewdly in to the future; but that which is rolled up and muffled in impenetrable folds is today.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: past present future time

Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: life living action goal balance

To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: life perspective meaning joy purpose wisdom success growth

Health is the first muse, and sleep is the condition to produce it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: wellness body sleep rest health

If a man carefully examines his thoughts, he will be surprised to find how much he lives in the future. His well-being is always ahead.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: thoughts future perspective life living goal dream vision balance

We do not live an equal life, but one of contrasts and patchwork; now a little joy, then a sorrow, now a sin, then a generous or brave action.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: life difficulties perfectionism

Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: patience serenity balance character

People only see what they are prepared to see.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: reality perception vision attitude

A man is what he thinks about all day long.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: thought attitude belief reality vision

What you are comes to you.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: character integrity honesty authenticity love

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: trust respect integrity relationships

Skill to do comes of doing.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: action practice skill ability talent

Passion, thought a bad regulator, is a powerful spring.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: passion desire self-control inspiration action

Vigor is contagious, and whatever makes us either think or feel strongly adds to our power and enlarges our field of action.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: vigor enthusiasm strength power influence vision mission

A feeble man can see the farms that are fenced and tilled, the houses that are built. The strong man sees the possible houses and farms. His eye makes estates as fast as the sun breeds clouds.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: strength vision mission creativity

Where there is no vision, people perish.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: vision mission future society

We change, whether we like it or not.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: change life character

I wish to say what I think and feel today, with the proviso that tomorrow perhaps I shall contradict it all.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: speech change honesty authenticity growth flexibility opinions

With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do...Speak what you think today in words as hard as cannon balls, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradicts everything you said today.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: speech truth honesty integrity change flexibility growth

God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please--you can never have both.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: truth honesty integrity growth character

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: vision goals dreams progress

Fear always springs from ignorance.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: fear ignorance knowledge wisdom

Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: courage strength fear action

Fear is the instructor of great sagacity, and the herald of all revolutions.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: fear education learning wisdom growth change

What torments of grief you endured, from evils that never arrived.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: grief worry fear

Do not be too timid and squeamish...All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: life change growth mistakes failure success fear

As soon as there is life, there is danger.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: risk life safety living

Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires...courage.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: goals dreams vision mission critics criticism difficulties challenges problems action courage strength planning

Whatever you do, you need courage.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: life action character courage fear

We are very near to greatness; one step and we are safe; can we not take the leap?
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: success courage faith action

We are always getting ready to live, but never living.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: life living balance priorities

Every artist was first an amateur.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: practice work effort growth progress

Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. As to methods there may be a million and then some, but the principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: ambition work dream vision goal principles methods work effort action planning

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: action work effort character

To believe in luck...is skepticism.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: luck belief character

The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: opportunity action vision

The majority of men are bundles of beginnings.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: character perseverance beginning planning priorities balance

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: courage strength character action

Difficulties exist to be surmounted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: difficulties challenges problems mistakes

When a man is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: challenges difficulties problems learning wisdom growth

Every calamity is a spur and valuable hint.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: trouble difficulties challenges problems growth change

Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: challenges difficulty problems learning growth change

Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: character relationships understanding

Not in his goals but in his transitions is man great.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: change growth goals

He is rich who owns the day. There is no king, rich man, fairy, or demon who possesses such power as that.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: happiness fulfillment present opportunity

Nothing astonishes men so much as common-sense and plain dealing.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: truth integrity honesty character fairness justice

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful we must carry it with us or find it not.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: beauty character perception

It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, "Always do what you are afraid to do."
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: courage strength growth change challenges difficulties problems learning

Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: speech action character

If you would not be known to do anything, never do it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: action reputation failure success

Hitch your wagon to a star.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: dreams goals vision mission success

But in the mud and scum of things
``There alway, alway something sings.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: hope faith perspective problems challenges difficulties

Go put your creed into your deed,
``Nor speak with double tongue.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: actions speech honesty integrity character

The music that can deepest reach,
And cure all ill, is cordial speech.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: courtesy speech politeness kindness

He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare
And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: friends enemies relationships

Happy is the house that shelters a friend.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: hospitality guests friendship relationships

The highest compact we can make with our fellow is,--"Let there be truth between us two forever more."
Ralph Waldo Emerson Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: friendship relationships trust honesty integrity character

Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: courtesy politeness kindness relationships hurry stress

Do not say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: integrity actions words honesty character speech

Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force; that thoughts rule the world.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: spirituality material possessions power thought

Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Light from Many Lamps
Categories: happiness sharing joy friendship love relationships attitude

Patience and fortitude conquer all things.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Light from Many Lamps
Categories: patience strength courage difficulties challenges problems

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Light from Many Lamps
Categories: sharing caring difficulties challenges problems friendship relationships

Finish each 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 well and serenely.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Light from Many Lamps
Categories: past mistakes failure peace serenity self-confidence opportunity

Congratulate yourselves if you have done something strange and extravagant and broken the monotomy of a decorous age.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: conformity individualism personality creativity progress

A man's years should not be counted until he has something else to count.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: age success life

What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: actions words speech example model habit

He who does a good deed is instantly enobled. He who does a mean deed is by the action itself contracted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: actions consequences outcomes results motives

Coolness and absence of heat and haste indicate fine qualities.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: character patience wisdom personality

Some thoughts always find us young, and keep us so. Such a thought is the love of the universal and eternal beauty.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: thought aging youth beauty love nature

Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: beauty imagination creativity inspiration

As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: society tolerance materialism perspective

Each man is a hero and an oracle to somebody.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: model example actions words character

Every industrious man, in every lawful calling, is a useful man. And one principal reason why men are so often useless is that they neglect their own profession or calling, and divide and shift their attention among a multiplicity of objects and pursuits.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: work effort self-respect usefulness focus balance priorities planning vision mission success

Each man has his own vocation. The talent is the call.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: work talent life success

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: wisdom judgement knowledge decisions

Criticism should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and rootpuller, but guiding, instructive, inspiring.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: criticism learning growth education instruction

One of the illusions of life is that the present hour is not the critical, decisive hour. Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: life time present attitude trivia routine gratitude

That which we do not call education is more precious than that which we call so.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: education learning experience life wisdom growth

The things taught in schools and colleges are not an education, but the means of education.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: education learning wisdom growth

Faith and love are apt to be spasmodic in the best minds. Men live on the brink of mysteries and harmonies into which they never enter, and with their hands on the door-latch they die outside.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: faith love belief hope opportunity action

If you believe in fate, believe in it, at least, for your own good.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: fatalism fate future belief

Go often to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: friendship relationships

I am for frank explanations with friends in cases of affronts. They sometimes save a perishing friendship or place it on a firmer basis than before. But secret discontent must always end badly.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: friendship relationship honesty integrity secret truth apology forgiveness

If a man's eye is on the Eternal, his intellect will grow.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: perspective growth knowledge wisdom education learning vision mission

The great man is not convulsible or tormentable, events pass over him without much impression.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: greatness peace serenity self-esteem self-awareness self-confidence security

Don't be a cynic, and bewail and bemoan. Omit the negative propositions. Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good. Set down nothing that will not help somebody.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: cynicism attitude negative positive rejection beauty good helpful

To help the young soul, to add energy, inspire hope, and blow the coals into a useful flame; to redeem defeat by new thought and firm action, this, though not easy, is the work of divine man.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: helpful energy inspiration hope encouragement redemption defeat mistakes success persevere action thought creativity work life

We judge of man's wisdom by his hope.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: hope faith vision wisdom character attitude

Wise men put their trust in ideas and not in circumstances.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: wisdom trust hope faith ideas circumstances vision mission

Ideas must work through the brains and arms of good and brave men, or they are no better than dreams.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: ideas action work dreams success

It is the ignorant and childish part of man that is the fighting part.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: forgiveness anger fight war peace

Imagination is not the talent of some men, but is the health of every man.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: imagination creativity dreams ideas talent wellness

A man is a little thing while he works by and for himself; but when he gives voice to the rules of love and justice, he is godlike.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: work selfishness sharing action love justice character

In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: learning education model example wisdom character growth

There is no calamity that right words will not begin to redress.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: problems mistakes forgiveness circumstance difficulties challenges speech apology sympathy empathy

There can be no high civility without a deep morality.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: society morality character courtesy

Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in the seed.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: vision mission action planning responsibility

A good intention clothes itself with power.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: power intention motive

Every noble activity makes room for itself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: action work effort opportunity planning priorities

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: greatness opportunity vision

The pleasure of life is according to the man that lives it, and not according to the work or place.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: joy life circumstances attitude work

All our progress is an unfolding, like the vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge, as the plant has root, but and fruit.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: growth change progress self-improvement instinct opinion knowledge

Progress is the activity of today and the assurance of tomorrow.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: progress action hope assurance growth change self-improvement

All are needed by each one. Nothing is fair or good alone.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: interdependence independence sharing giving relationship need

Do not spill thy soul in running hither and yon, grieving over the mistakes and the vices of others. The one person whom it is most necessary to reform is yourself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: change growth wisdom soul mistakes success

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power that resides in him is new in Nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: responsibility education envy creativity imitation self-acceptance work effort success power talent gift ability action

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion--it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who, in the midst of the world, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: opinion self-confidence independence thought peace serenity

As the gardener, by severe pruning, forces the sap of the tree into one or two vigorous limbs, so should you stop off your miscellaneous activity and concentrate your force on one or a few points.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: focus concentration vision priorities balance success energy

Talent for talent's sake is a bauble and a show. Talent working with joy in the cause of universal truth lifts the possessor to a new power as a benefactor.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: talent action opportunity truth

Do not craze yourself with thinking, but go about your business anywhere. Life is not intellectual and critical, but sturdy.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: thought philosophy living work action

The greatest difficulty is that men do not think enough of themselves, do not consider what it is that they are sacrificing when they follow in a herd, or when they cater for their establishment...A man should learn to detect and foster that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within far more than the luster of the whole firmament without. Yet he dismisses without notice his peculiar thought because it is peculiar. The time will come when he will postpone all acquired knowledge to this spontaneous wisdom, and will watch for this illumination more than those who watch for morning.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: self-confidence self-esteem wisdom knowledge originality creativity thought conformity self-nurture instinct

The revelation of thought takes man out of servitude into freedom.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: thought freedom

Thought is the property of those only who can entertain it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: thought wisdom reflection knowledge

What is the hardest task in the world? To think.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: thought philosophy creativity originality

Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: truth lie liar character honesty integrity society

The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: action truth life character honesty integrity

The highest compact we can make with our fellow is: Let there be truth between us two forevermore.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: truth honesty integrity relationship friendship love character authenticity

A little integrity is better than any career.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: integrity character principles honesty

Wisdom is like electricity. There is no permanently wise man, but men capable of wisdom, who, being put into certain company, or other favorable conditions, become wise for a while, as glasses being rubbed acquire electric power for a while.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: wisdom relationship friends growth learning creativity

So of cheerfulness, or a good temper, the more it is spent, the more it remains.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Franklin Day Planner, November 19, 1994
Categories: character attitude happiness joy cheerfulness

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Franklin Day Planner, 1994 November
Categories: thought words speech action work effort success

We all boil at different degrees.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying, and Quotation
Categories: speech anger angry reaction response words demeanor patience patient relationships friendships self-control

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Words for All Occasions
Categories: anger angry fighting argue argument arguing fights

Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world.
Ralph Waldo Emerson You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought
Categories: spirituality ideas creativity soul thought vision

Do the thing and you will be given the power.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Alexandra Stoddard's Book of Days
Categories: action effort work commitment success achievement

Use what language you will, you can never say anything to others but what you are.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Words for All Occasions
Categories: profanity swearing vulgar language speech tongue words thoughts character

Life must be lived on a higher plane. We must go up to a higher platform, to which we are always invited to ascend; there, the whole aspect of things changes.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Thoughts on Leadership
Categories: character spirituality morality

Tomorrow will be like today. Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live. Our friends and fellow-workers die off from us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Thoughts on Leadership
Categories: life living attention focus balance plans goals relationships

He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues it possesses.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Spirit of Loving
Categories: wisdom love elevation virtues renewal

Character is higher than intellect.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Alexandra Stoddard's Book of Days
Categories: character virtue reputation

Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.
Ralph Waldo Emerson American Quotations
Categories: adversity challenge growth problems difficulties learning

Life consists of what a man is thinking of all day.
Ralph Waldo Emerson How to Want What You Have: Discovering the Magic and Grandeur of Ordinary Existence
Categories: life thoughts

Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Words for All Occasions
Categories: progress enthusiasm vision possibility

The crime which bankrupts men and nations is that of turning aside from one's main purpose to serve a job here and there.
Ralph Waldo Emerson What Matters Most participant workbook(Franklin-Covey)
Categories: purpose meaning calling

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

Work and acquire, and thou hast chained the wheel of Chance.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Categories: chance

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Categories: character

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Categories: character

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Categories: civilization

If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Categories: confidence

Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner.
Ralph Waldo Emerson New England Reformers, 1844
Categories: conservatives

There is no den in the wide world to hide a rogue. Commit a crime and the earth is made of glass. Commit a crime, and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge, and fox, and squirrel.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Categories: crime

Let not a man guard his dignity, but let his dignity guard him.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Categories: dignity

Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Categories: evil

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Categories: heroes

Every hero becomes a bore at last.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Categories: heroes

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Categories: honor

Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Letters and Social Aims: The Comic, 1876
Categories: humor

Immortality. I notice that as soon as writers broach this question they begin to quote. I hate quotation. Tell me what you know.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Journal (May 1849)
Categories: immortality

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Categories: intelligence

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Categories: luck

When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Journals, 1824
Categories: patriotism

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.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Categories: persistence

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

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Essays, First Series: Prudence, 1841
Categories: trust

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Categories: truth