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  • Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes   4214
  • There is a mortifying experience in particular, which does not fail to wreak itself also in the general history; I mean "the foolish face of praise," the forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease, in answer to conversation which does not interest us. The muscles, not spontaneously moved but moved, by a low usurping wilfulness, grow tight about the outline of the face, with the most disagreeable sensation.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes , Mean Quotes , Doe Quotes
  • More than the diamond Koh-i-noor, which glitters among their crown jewels, they prize the dull pebble which is wiser than a man, whose poles turn themselves to the poles of the world, and whose axis is parallel to the axis of the world. Now, their toys are steam and galvanism.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes , Wisdom Quotes , Science Quotes
  • It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes , Courage Quotes , Heart Quotes
  • The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world. The heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes , Hero Quotes , Men Quotes
  • A man cannot free himself by any self-denying ordinances, neither by water nor potatoes, nor by violent possibilities, by refusing to swear, refusing to pay taxes, by going to jail, or by taking another man's crops or squatting on his land. By none of these ways can he free himself; no, nor by paying his debts with money; only by obedience to his own genius.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes , Men Quotes , Jail Quotes
  • Our religion vulgarly stands on numbers of believers. Whenever the appeal is made--no matter how indirectly--to numbers, proclamation is then and there made, that religion is not. He that finds God a sweet, enveloping presence, who shall dare to come in?
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes , God Quotes , Sweet Quotes
  • Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring. Any absorbing passion has the effect to deliver from the little coils and cares of every day: 'tis the heat which sets our human atoms spinning, overcomes the friction of crossing thresholds, and first addresses in society, and gives us a good start and speed, easy to continue, when once it is begun.
  • 5 years ago



    Tags : Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes , Powerful Quotes , Spring Quotes