He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

Meaning of the quote

If you don't try to overcome your fears every day, you haven't discovered the true meaning of living. Facing your fears, even small ones, helps you grow and learn more about yourself. It's through these daily challenges that you can unlock the secrets to a fulfilling life.

About Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an influential American philosopher, essayist, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement in the 19th century. He was known for his advocacy of individualism, nonconformity, and the belief in the inherent goodness of both people and nature. Emerson’s essays, such as “Self-Reliance” and “The Over-Soul,” had a profound impact on American literature and thought.

More about the author

More quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Hitch your wagon to a star.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

One must be an inventor to read well. There is then creative reading as well as creative writing.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

All mankind love a lover.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Men are what their mothers made them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Mysticism is the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for an universal one.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every fact is related on one side to sensation, and, on the other, to morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two sides, to find the other: given the upper, to find the under side.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

There is a blessed necessity by which the interest of men is always driving them to the right; and, again, making all crime mean and ugly.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

We see God face to face every hour, and know the savor of Nature.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The value of a dollar is social, as it is created by society.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

America is another name for opportunity.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Death comes to all, but great achievements build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves reading, as it is the sense of France.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The reason why men do not obey us, is because they see the mud at the bottom of our eye.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

God screens us evermore from premature ideas.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we awake from dreams.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

We are wiser than we know.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

All diseases run into one, old age.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The method of nature: who could ever analyze it?

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

A man’s growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests, and mines, and stone quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

It is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world owes the world more than the world can pay.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one’s self?

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The best effort of a fine person is felt after we have left their presence.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

There is creative reading as well as creative writing.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

For every benefit you receive a tax is levied.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

There is always safety in valor.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The secret of ugliness consists not in irregularity, but in being uninteresting.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Men admire the man who can organize their wishes and thoughts in stone and wood and steel and brass.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The sum of wisdom is that time is never lost that is devoted to work.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Great men or men of great gifts you shall easily find, but symmetrical men never.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, else it is none.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

We are rich only through what we give, and poor only through what we refuse.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force – that thoughts rule the world.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

To be great is to be misunderstood.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Children are all foreigners.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Always do what you are afraid to do.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Doing well is the result of doing good. That’s what capitalism is all about.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The first wealth is health.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Why need I volumes, if one word suffice?

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Great geniuses have the shortest biographies.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every mind must make its choice between truth and repose. It cannot have both.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The wave of evil washes all our institutions alike.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

If the tongue had not been framed for articulation, man would still be a beast in the forest.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Getting old is a fascination thing. The older you get, the older you want to get.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

What we seek we shall find; what we flee from flees from us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The revelation of thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Some books leave us free and some books make us free.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is the best of all.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer. He is by constitution expensive, and needs to be rich.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Reality is a sliding door.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The age of a woman doesn’t mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every artist was first an amateur.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Beauty is an outward gift, which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Our admiration of the antique is not admiration of the old, but of the natural.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every burned book enlightens the world.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

What you are comes to you.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

A man in debt is so far a slave.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

O Day of days when we can read! The reader and the book, either without the other is naught.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

A man is the whole encyclopedia of facts.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

There are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. We wake from one dream into another dream.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Nature hates calculators.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

If a man can… make a better mousetrap, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

A man is usually more careful of his money than he is of his principles.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every spirit makes its house, and we can give a shrewd guess from the house to the inhabitant.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Make yourself necessary to somebody.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

I hate the giving of the hand unless the whole man accompanies it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Revolutions go not backward.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

People that seem so glorious are all show; underneath they are like everyone else.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

As soon as there is life there is danger.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Who hears me, who understands me, becomes mine, a possession for all time.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Happy is the hearing man; unhappy the speaking man.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Good men must not obey the laws too well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every hero becomes a bore at last.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

A man is a method, a progressive arrangement; a selecting principle, gathering his like to him; wherever he goes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

I have no hostility to nature, but a child’s love to it. I expand and live in the warm day like corn and melons.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

We are symbols, and inhabit symbols.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Beauty without expression is boring.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

No man ever prayed heartily without learning something.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Manners require time, and nothing is more vulgar than haste.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘always do what you are afraid to do.’

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The man of genius inspires us with a boundless confidence in our own powers.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

There is an optical illusion about every person we meet.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

There are other measures of self-respect for a man, than the number of clean shirts he puts on every day.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

We do not yet possess ourselves, and we know at the same time that we are much more.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

God enters by a private door into every individual.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Money often costs too much.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

It is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under other circumstances.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

It is the quality of the moment, not the number of days, or events, or of actors, that imports.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Power and speed be hands and feet.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Genius always finds itself a century too early.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

We are by nature observers, and thereby learners. That is our permanent state.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

A great man is always willing to be little.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Give a boy address and accomplishments and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes where he goes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

It is not length of life, but depth of life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every known fact in natural science was divined by the presentiment of somebody, before it was actually verified.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The search after the great men is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of manhood.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

We are always getting ready to live but never living.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

As a cure for worrying, work is better than whiskey.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

There is no chance and anarchy in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

A good indignation brings out all one’s powers.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The reward of a thing well done is having done it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

People disparage knowing and the intellectual life, and urge doing. I am content with knowing, if only I could know.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Cause and effect are two sides of one fact.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

People only see what they are prepared to see.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The highest revelation is that God is in every man.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

A man is what he thinks about all day long.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Our best thoughts come from others.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every man I meet is in some way my superior.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Pictures must not be too picturesque.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The years teach much which the days never know.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

The value of a principle is the number of things it will explain.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Men’s actions are too strong for them. Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the victim and slave of his action.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and stare.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Earth laughs in flowers.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every wall is a door.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Nothing external to you has any power over you.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

It is my desire, in the office of a Christian minister, to do nothing which I cannot do with my whole heart. Having said this, I have said all.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

When we quarrel, how we wish we had been blameless.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

We are a puny and fickle folk. Avarice, hesitation, and following are our diseases.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

We must be our own before we can be another’s.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Science does not know its debt to imagination.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Every experiment, by multitudes or by individuals, that has a sensual and selfish aim, will fail.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

Little minds have little worries, big minds have no time for worries.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)

There is more difference in the quality of our pleasures than in the amount.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

American philosopher (1803-1882)