Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson, known professionally as Waldo Emerson, was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth25 May 1803
CountryUnited States of America
A man's library is a sort of harem.
A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic.
Tis the good reader that makes the good book.
If eyes were made for seeing, then beauty is its own excuse for being.
Give me wine to wash me clean of the weather-stains of cares
Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.
Doubt not, O poet, but persist. Say 'It is in me, and shall out.' Stand there, balked and dumb, stuttering and stammering, hissed and hooted, stand and strive, until at last rage draw out of thee that dream-power which every night shows thee is thine own; a power transcending all limit and privacy, and by virtue of which a man is the conductor of the whole river of electricity.
Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee.
Self trust is the essence of heroism.
Every word was once a poem.
I wish to say what I think and feel today, with the proviso that tomorrow perhaps I shall contradict it all.
By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote.
Everything is made of one hidden stuff.
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.