Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. Here are some of Best quotes of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and his ideology was disseminated through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States. Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of transcendentalism in his 1836 essay “Nature”. Following this work, he gave a speech entitled “The American Scholar” in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. considered to be America’s “intellectual Declaration of Independence.”
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”
“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
“Always do what you are afraid to do.”
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.”
“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.”
“What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”
“When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.”
“It is not the length of life, but the depth.”
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
“Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.”
“Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.”
“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”
“Make the most of yourself….for that is all there is of you.”
“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.”
“A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.”
“People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.”
“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”
“Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one’s own sunshine.”
“Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting some on yourself.
“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.”
“Life is short, but there is always time enough for courtesy.”
“Life is a series of surprises and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.”