The Complete Works Of Ralph Waldo Emerson

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Man hopes. Genius creates.

Character is higher than intellect.

The world is his who can see through its pretension.

If there be one lesson more than another that should pierce his ear, it is--The world is nothing, the man is all; in yourself is the law of all nature, and you know not yet how a globule of sap ascends; in yourself slumbers the whole of Reason; it is for you to know all; it is for you to dare all.

The secure possession, by the stage, of the public mind, is of the first importance to the poet who works for it.

Every mind must know the whole lesson for itself,--must go over the whole ground. What it does not see, what it does not live, it will not know.

We must in ourselves see the necessary reason of every fact,--see how it could and must be.

It has been said that "common souls pay with what they do, nobler souls with that which they are." And why? Because a profound nature awakens in us by its actions and words, by its very looks and manners, the same power and beauty that a gallery of sculpture or of pictures addresses.

Let it suffice that in the light of these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its correlative, history is to be read and written.

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.

God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace.

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution; the only wrong what is against it.

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

Time and space are but physiological colors which the eye makes, but the soul is light: where it is, is day; where it was, is night; and history is an impertinence and an injury if it be any thing more than a cheerful apologue or parable of my being and becoming.

The power men possess to annoy me I give them by a weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through my act.

They measure their esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is.

Hoi kuboi Dios aei eupiptousi,--The dice of God are always loaded.

Every act rewards itself, or, in other words integrates itself, in a twofold manner; first in the thing, or in real nature; and secondly in the circumstance, or in apparent nature.

Crime and punishment grow out of one stem. Punishment is a fruit that unsuspected ripens within the flower of the pleasure which concealed it. 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.

But as soon as there is any departure from simplicity, and attempt at halfness, or good for me that is not good for him, my neighbor feels the wrong; he shrinks from me as far as I have shrunk from him; his eyes no longer seek mine; there is war between us; there is hate in him and fear in me.

Beware of too much good staying in your hand. It will fast corrupt and worm worms. Pay it away quickly in some sort.

The law of nature is, Do the thing, and you shall have the Power; but they who do not the thing have not the power.

"Winds blow and waters roll Strength to the brave, and power and deity, Yet in themselves are nothing."

Our strength grows out of our weakness.

A great man is always willing to be little. Whilst he sits on the cushion of advantages, he goes to sleep. When he is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something; he has been put on his wits, on his manhood; he has gained facts; learns his ignorance; is cured of the insanity of conceit; has got moderation and real skill.

The wise man throws himself on the side of his assailants. It is more his interest than it is theirs to find his weak point.

As long as all that is said is said against me, I feel a certain assurance of success. But as soon as honeyed words of praise are spoken for me I feel as one that lies unprotected before his enemies.

What your heart thinks great is great. The soul's emphasis is always right.

It is vain to attempt to keep a secret from one who has a right to know it. It will tell itself. That mood into which a friend can bring us is his dominion over us. To the thoughts of that state of mind he has a right.

for he touched the secret of the matter who said of love,-- "All other pleasures are not worth its pains:"

Love prays. It makes covenants with Eternal Power in behalf of this dear mate.

The heart knoweth.

My friends have come to me unsought. The great God gave them to me.

I must feel pride in my friend's accomplishments as if they were mine, and a property in his virtues.

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud.

Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins. We parry and fend the approach of our fellow-man by compliments, by gossip, by amusements, by affairs.

The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.

Only be admonished by what you already see, not to strike leagues of friendship with cheap persons, where no friendship can be.

So I will owe to my friends this evanescent intercourse. I will receive from them not what they have but what they are. They shall give me that which properly they cannot give, but which emanates from them. But they shall not hold me by any relations less subtile and pure. We will meet as though we met not, and part as though we parted not.

Let your greatness educate the crude and cold companion. If he is unequal he will presently pass away;

It is thought a disgrace to love unrequited. But the great will see that true love cannot be unrequited. True love transcends the unworthy object and dwells and broods on the eternal, and when the poor interposed mask crumbles, it is not sad, but feels rid of so much earth and feels its independency the surer.

If you would serve your brother, because it is fit for you to serve him, do not take back your words when you find that prudent people do not commend you.

your genius will speak from you, and mine from me. That which we are, we shall teach, not voluntarily but involuntarily.

Character teaches over our head.

The tone of seeking is one, and the tone of having is another.

There is in all great poets a wisdom of humanity which is superior to any talents they exercise.

He that finds God a sweet enveloping thought to him never counts his company.