Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82) was a major figure in American literature. His life was plagued with his bad health and that of his dear ones. Here is a collection of Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes to introduce you to the quintessential Ralph Waldo Emerson.
If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.


It is as impossible for a man to be cheated by any one but himself, as for a thing to be and not to be at the same time.


There is no great and no small, To the Soul that maketh all; And where it cometh, all things are; And it cometh everywhere.


If the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways, I keep and pass and turn again.


When Shakespeare is charged with debts to his authors, Landor replies, “Yet he was more original than his originals. He breathed upon dead bodies and brought them into life.”


Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to get out, and such as are out wish to get in?


Raphael paints wisdom, Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it.


I wiped away the weeds and foam, I fetched my sea-born treasures home; But the poor, unsightly, noisome things, Had left their beauty on the shore, With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar.


I like a church; I like a cowl; I like a prophet of the soul; And on my heart monastic aisles, Fall like sweet strains or pensive smiles: Yet not for all his faith can see, Would I that cowléd churchman be.


The hand that rounded Peter’s dome, And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, Wrought in a sad sincerity; Himself from God he could not free; He builded better than he knew: The conscious stone to beauty grew