Compensation and Self-Reliance Quotes

“We want men and women who shall renovate life and our social state, but we see that most natures are insolvent. Cannot satisfy their own wants, have an ambition out of all proportion to their practical force, and so do lean and beg day and night continually.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Compensation and Self-Reliance

“The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Compensation and Self-Reliance

“The voice of the Almighty saith, "Up and onward forever more!” We cannot stay amid the ruins. Neither will we rely on the New; and so we walk ever with reverted eyes, like those monsters who look backwards.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Compensation and Self-Reliance

“Herein I rejoice with a serene eternal peace. I contract the boundaries of possible mischief. I learn the wisdom of St. Bernard,
—"Nothing can work me damage except myself; the harm that I sustain I carry about with me, and never am a real sufferer but by my own fault.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Compensation and Self-Reliance