We grant no dukedoms to the few,
We hold like rights and shall;
Equal on Sunday in the pew,
On Monday in the mall.
For what avail the plough or sail,
Or land, or life, if freedom fail?
¶ "Boston Hymn" (1863)
Quotations by ...
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
We grant no dukedoms to the few,
We hold like rights and shall; —
Equal on Sunday in the pew,
On Monday in the mall.
For what avail the plough or sail,
Or land or life, if freedom fail?
¶ "Boston" (1873)
Written and read for the 100th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.
Life is a perpetual instruction in cause and effect.
¶ "Natural Religion" (3 Feb. 1861)
Don’t say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.
¶ "Social Aims," Letters and Social Aims (vol. 8 of The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson) (1917)
Based on a Boston lecture (4 Dec 1864). http://www.bartleby.com/73/186.html
Every observation of history inspires a confidence that we shall not go far wrong; that things will mend.
¶ "The Young American" (lecture), Boston (7 Feb. 1844)
Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it.
¶ (Attributed)
Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities crept in-- forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it well and serenely, and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old mistakes and nonsense.
¶ (Attributed)
Every hero becomes a bore at last.
¶ (Attributed)
A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.
¶ (Attributed)
It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.
¶ (Attributed)
Nature is too thin a screen; the glory of the omnipresent God bursts through everywhere.
¶ (Attributed)
It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.
¶ (Attributed)
The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him.
¶ (Attributed)
Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.
¶ (Attributed)
All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man had taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first.
¶ (Attributed)
No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing.
¶ (Attributed)
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.
¶ (Attributed)
Your goodness must have some edge to it, -- else it is none.
¶ Essays: First Series, "Self Reliance" (1841)
Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.
¶ Essays: First Series, "Art" (1841)
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.
¶ Essays: First Series, "Art" (1841)
Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed.
¶ Essays: First Series, "Compensation" (1841)
A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud.
¶ Essays: First Series, "Friendship" (1841)
The only way to have a friend is to be one.
¶ Essays: First Series, "Friendship" (1841)
It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, —”Always do what you are afraid to do.”
¶ Essays: First Series, "Heroism" (1841)
God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose.
¶ Essays: First Series, "Intellect" (1841)
Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.
¶ Essays: First Series, "Prudence" (1841)
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,
Adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
¶ Essays: First Series, "Self-Reliance" (1841)
Speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon-balls and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.
¶ Essays: First Series, "Self-Reliance" (1841)
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.
¶ Essays: First Series, "Self-Reliance" (1841)
The faith that stands on authority is not faith.
¶ Essays: First Series, "The Over-Soul" (1841)
The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.
¶ Essays: Second Series, New England Reformers, "New England Reformers" (1844)
or The Conduct of Life, "Fate" (1860)
Let us treat men and women well; treat them as if they were real; perhaps they are.
¶ Essays: Second Series, "Experience" (1844)
We aim above the mark to hit the mark.
¶ Essays: Second Series, "Nature" (1844)
We must trust the perfection of the creation so far, as to believe that whatever curiosity the order of things has awakened in our minds, the order of things can satisfy.
¶ Essays: Second Series, "Nature" (1844)
Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey the laws too well.
¶ Essays: Second Series, "Politics" (1844)
When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart.
¶ Journals (1824)
Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis.
¶ Journals (1836)
Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
¶ Journals (1838)
Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little course, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.
¶ Journals (1842)
Culture is one thing -- and varnish another.
¶ Journals (1868)
The human soul, the world, the universe are laboring on to their magnificent consummation. We are not fashioned … marvelously for nought.
¶ Journals (5 Dec. 1820)
It is by no means necessary that I should live, but it is by all means necessary that I should act rightly.
¶ Journals (May 1854)
You shall have joy, or you shall have power, said God; you shall not have both.
¶ Journals (Oct. 1842)
Sorrow makes us all children again, destroys all difference of intellect. The wisest knows nothing.
¶ Journals, Vol. 8 (30 Jan. 1842)
Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak.
¶ Letters and Social Aims, "Eloquence" (1876)
Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it.
¶ Letters and Social Aims, "Quotation & Originality" (1876)
By necessity, by proclivity and by delight, we all quote.
¶ Letters and Social Aims, "Quotation and Originality" (1876)
Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices.
¶ Letters and Social Aims, "Social Aims" (1876)
Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.
¶ Letters and Social Aims, "Social Aims" (1876)
What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.
¶ Letters and Social Aims, "Social Aims" (lecture, Boston, 4 Dec. 1864) (1876)
The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.
¶ Society and Solitude, "Domestic Life" (1870)
A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life; he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days.
¶ Society and Solitude, "Works and Days" (1870)
Our chief want in life, is, someone who shall make us do what we can. This is the service of a friend. With him we are easily great.
¶ The Conduct of Life, "Considerations by the Way" (1860)
Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.
¶ The Conduct of Life, "Illusions" (1860)
People seem not to see that opinion of the world is also a confession of character.
¶ The Conduct of Life, "Worship" (1860)
Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances -- it was somebody's name, or he happened to be there at the time, or it was so then, and another day would have been otherwise. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
¶ The Conduct of Life, "Worship" (1860)
Explore, and explore. Be neither chided nor flattered out of your position of perpetual inquiry. Neither dogmatize, or accept another’s dogmatism.
¶ Speech, Dartmouth College (24 Jul 1838)
These times of ours are serious and full of calamity, but all times are essentially alike. As soon as there is life there is danger.
¶ “Public and Private Education,” lecture, Parker Fraternity, Boston (27 Nov 1864)