Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

The purpose of life is not to be happy.

It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

To be yourself in a world that in constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.

Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.

It is easy to live for others, everybody does. I call on you to live for yourselves.

Be good to your work, your work, and your friend.

People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

Always do what you are afraid to do.

Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience.

Be silly. Be honest. Be kind.

The love that you withhold is the pain that you carry.

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies with in us.

Sorrow looks back, Worry looks around, Faith looks up

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.

Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.

All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.

Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.

We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

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

Conversation enriches the understanding; but solitude is the school of genius.

Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

People only see what they are prepared to see.

I didn't find my friends; the good Lord gave them to me.

The eyes indicate the antiquity of the soul.

Earth proudly wears the Parthenon As the best gem upon her zone.

Love is like wildflowers; It's often found in the most unlikely places.

To get up each morning with the resolve to be happy is to set your own conditions to the events of each day. To do this is to condition circumstances instead of being conditioned by them.

Improve your spare moments and they will become the brightest gems in your life.

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success.

When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives.

Every great achievement is the victory of a flaming heart.

Shallow people believe in luck and in circumstances; Strong people believe in cause and effect.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

Always do what you are afraid to do.

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.