Background Image
...
Our Statute Is A Currency Which We Stamp With Our Own Portrait.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
...
Please Wait....
Translating....

Our Statute Is A

Ralph Waldo Emerson
...
Our Statute Is A Currency Which We Stamp With Our Own Portrait.

Understanding the Quote: "our statute is a currency which we stamp with our own portrait...."

This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects deeply on the theme of portraits. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Portraits, Currency, Stamps, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Ralph Waldo Emerson interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson is celebrated for insightful thoughts on portraits and currency. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 9
Topic
Portraits
Currency
Stamps
More From Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every Action Has An Ancestor Of A Thought.
Action
Ancestor
America Is A Country Of Young Men.
Country
Men
America
Real Men Don't Conform To The Beliefs Of Others, Even When Society Has Concluded On What Is Good And True, But Maintain The Integrity Of Their Own Mind.
Integrity
Real
Men
The Greatest Meliorator Of The World Is Selfish, Huckstering Trade.
Selfish
Selfishness
World
Why Should We Fear To Be Crushed By Savage Elements, We Who Are Made Up Of The Same Elements?
Nature
Savages
Elements
Every Book Is Good To Read Which Sets The Reader In A Working Mood.
Book
Writing
Mood
Self Reliance, The Height And Perfection Of Man, Is Reliance On God.
Men
Self
Perfection
Teaching Is The Perpetual End And Office Of All Things. Teaching, Instruction Is The Main Design That Shines Through The Sky And Earth.
Teaching
Sky
Office
Broader And Deeper We Must Write Our Annals, From An Ethical Reformation, From An Influx Of The Ever New, Ever Sanative Conscience, If We Would Trulier Express Our Central And Wide-related Nature, Instead Of This Old Chronology Of Selfishness And Pride To Which We Have Too Long Lent Our Eyes. Already That Day Exists For Us, Shines In On Us At Unawares, But The Path Of Science And Of Letters Is Not The Way Into Nature. The Idiot, The Indian, The Child, And Unschooled Farmer's Boy, Stand Nearer To The Light By Which Nature Is To Be Read, Than The Dissector Or The Antiquary.
Children
Eye
Writing
The Health Of The Eye Demands A Horizon.
Eye
Horizon
Demand
We Teach Boys To Be Such Men As We Are. We Do Not Teach Them To Aspire To Be All They Can. We Do Not Give Them A Training As If Webelieved In Their Noble Nature. We Scarce Educate Their Bodies. We Do Not Train The Eye And The Hand. We Exercise Their Understandings To The Apprehension And Comparison Of Some Facts, To A Skill In Numbers, In Words; We Aim To Make Accountants, Attorneys, Engineers; But Not To Make Able, Earnest, Great- Hearted Men.
Education
Eye
Exercise
Venus, When Her Son Was Lost, Cried Him Up And Down The Coast, In Hamlets, Palaces, And Parks, And Told The Truant By His Marks,- Golden Curls, And Quiver, And Bow.
Life
Son
Curls
We Do Not Want Actions, But Men; Not A Chemical Drop Of Water, But Rain; The Spirit That Sheds And Showers Actions, Countless, Endless Actions.
Rain
Men
Water
It Is The Essence Of Poetry To Spring, Like The Rainbow Daughter Of Wonder, From The Invisible, To Abolish The Past, And Refuse All History.
Daughter
Spring
Past
Henceforth, Please God, Forever I Forego The Yolk Of Men's Opinions. I Will Be Light-hearted As A Bird And Live With God. I Find Him In The Bottom Of My Heart, And I Hear Continually His Voice Therein.
Heart
Men
Light
The Gods We Worship Write Their Names On Our Faces; Be Sure Of That. And A Man Will Worship Something ... That Which Dominates Will Determine His Life And Character. Therefore It Behooves Us To Be Careful What We Worship, For What We Are Worshipping We Are Becoming.
Writing
Character
Men
Little Thinks, In The Field, Yon Red-cloaked Clown, Of Thee, From The Hill-top Looking Down; And The Heifer, That Lows In The Upland Farm, Far-heard, Lows Not Thine Ear To Charm; The Sexton Tolling The Bell At Noon, Dreams Not That Great Napoleon Sto
Dream
Thinking
Agriculture
Since Everything In Nature Answers To A Moral Power, If Any Phenomenon Remains Brute And Dark, It Is That The Corresponding Faculty In The Observer Is Not Yet Active.
Dark
Power
Perception
It Is Much Better To Learn The Elements Of Geology, Of Botany, Or Ornithology And Astronomy By Word Of Mouth From A Companion Than Dully From A Book.
Book
Learning
Science
Beware Of Jokes From Which We Go Away Hollow And Ashamed.
Going Away
Ashamed
Jokes
There Is No Luck In Literary Reputation. They Who Make Up The Final Verdict Upon Every Book Are Not The Partial And Noisy Readers Of The Hour When It Appears; But A Court As Of Angels, A Public Not To Be Bribed, Not To Be Entreated, And Not To Be Overawed, Decides Upon Every Man's Title To Fame.
Art
Book
Writing
If With Love Thy Heart Has Burned; If Thy Love Is Unreturned; Hide Thy Grief Within Thy Breast, Though It Tear Thee Unexpressed.
Grief
Heart
Love Is
How Much Finer Things Are In Composition Than Alone.
Harmony
Finer Things
Composition
The Have A Good Friend Is One Of The Greatest Delights Of Life.
Good Friend
Delight
The Years In Your Life Are Less Important Than The Life In Your Years.
Years
Important
On The Other Side, The Conservative Party, Composed Of The Most Moderate, Able, And Cultivated Part Of The Population, Is Timid, And Merely Defensive Of Property. It Vindicates No Right, It Aspires To No Real Good, It Brands No Crime, It Proposes No Generous Policy, It Does Not Build, Nor Write, Nor Cherish The Arts, Nor Foster Religion, Nor Establish Schools, Nor Encourage Science, Nor Emancipate The Slave, Nor Befriend The Poor, Or The Indian, Or The Immigrant.
Art
Real
Writing
There Is A Principle Which Is The Basis Of Things, Which All Speech Aims To Say, And All Action To Evolve, A Simple, Quiet, Undescribed, Undescribable Presence, Dwelling Very Peacefully In Us, Our Rightful Lord: We Are Not To Do, But To Let Do; Not To Work, But To Be Worked Upon.
Simple
Dwelling
Principles
A Man Is Like A Bit Of Labrador Spar, Which Has No Luster As You Turn It In Your Hand, Until You Come To A Particular Angle; Then It Shows Deep And Beautiful Colors.
Beautiful
Character
Men
An English Family Consists Of A Few Persons, Who, From Youth To Age, Are Found Revolving Within A Few Feet Of Each Other, As If Tied By Some Invisible Ligature, Tense As That Cartilage Which We Have Seen Attaching The Two Siamese.
Family
Two
Feet
I Am The Owner Of The Sphere, Of The Seven Stars And The Solar Year, Of Caesar's Hand, And Plato's Brain, Of Lord Christ's Heart, And Shakespeare's Strain.
Stars
Plato
Heart
Tart, Cathartic Virtue.
Virtue
Cathartic
Tarts
Science, Nature,-o, I've Yearned To Open Some Page.
Nature
Science
Pages
We Must Trust Infinitely To The Beneficent Necessity Which Shines Through All Laws. Human Nature Expresses Itself In Them As Characteristically As In Statues, Or Songs, Or Railroads, And An Abstract Of The Codes Of Nations Would Be An Abstract Of The Common Conscience.
Song
Law
Shining
People Do Not Seem To Realize That Their Opinion Of The World Is Also A Confession Of Character.
Positive
Attitude
I Hate You
Culture Is One Thing And Varnish Is Another.
Other Cultures
Culture
One Thing
[gratitude Is] The Cheerfulness Of Wisdom.
Gratitude
Cheerfulness
I Unsettle All Things.
All Things
The Whole Of Heraldry And Of Chivalry Is In Courtesy. A Man Of Fine Manners Shall Pronounce Your Name With All The Ornament That Titles Of Nobility Could Ever Add.
Men
Names
Titles
We Love Flattery, Even Though We Are Not Deceived By It, Because It Shows That We Are Of Importance Enough To Be Courted.
Political
Flattery
Enough
We Begin With Friendships, And All Our Youth Is A Reconnoitering And Recruiting Of The Holy Fraternity They Shall Combine For Thesalvation Of Men. But So The Remoter Stars Seem A Nebula Of United Light, Yet There Is No Group Which A Telescope Will Not Resolve; And The Dearest Friends Are Separated By Impassable Gulfs.
Friendship
Stars
Men
Do You See That Kitten Chasing So Prettily Her Own Tail? If You Could Look With Her Eyes, You Might See Her Surrounded With Hundreds Of Figures Performing Complex Dramas, With Tragic And Comic Issues, Long Conversations, Many Characters, Many Ups And Downs Of Fate.
Drama
Character
Cat
Always Do What You Are Afraid To Do.
Inspirational
Education
Peace
Music Causes Us To Think Eloquently.
Music
Thinking
Causes
There Is Always Room For A Person Of Force And They Make Room For Many.
Strength
Rooms
Force
Whatever Limits Us We Call Fate.
Attitude
Fate
Limits
Without Looking, Then, To Those Extraordinary Social Influences Which Are Now Acting In Precisely This Direction, But Only At Whatis Inevitably Doing Around Us, I Think We Must Regard The Land As A Commanding And Increasing Power On The Citizen, The Sanative And Americanizing Influence, Which Promises To Disclose New Virtues For Ages To Come.
Thinking
Land
Promise
We Love Force And We Care Very Little How It Is Exhibited.
Love
Care
Littles
Overhead The Sanctities Of The Stars Shine Forever-more... Pouring Satire On The Pompous Business Of The Day Which They Close, And Making The Generations Of Men Show Slight And Evanescent.
Stars
Men
Shining
She Shows Us Only Surfaces, But She Is Million-fathoms Deep.
Surface
Shows
Fathom
For, Whom The Muses Smile Upon, And Touch With Soft Persuasion, His Words Like A Storm-wind Can Bring Terror And Beauty On Their Wing; In His Every Syllable Lurketh Nature Veritable.
Wind
Wings
Poetry
Wise Cultivated, Genial Conversation Is The Last Flower Of Civilization, And The Best Result Which Life Has To Offer Us,--a Cup For Gods, Which Has No Repentance. Conversation Is Our Account Of Ourselves. All We Have, All We Can, All We Know, Is Brought Into Play, And As The Reproduction In Finer Form, Of All Our Havings.
Wise
Flower
Civilization
A Foolish Consistency Is The Hobgoblin Of Little Minds, Adored By Little Statesmen And Philosophers And Divines.
Silly
Science
Political
Though We Love Goodness And Not Stealing, Yet Also We Love Freedom And Not Preaching.
Freedom
Stealing
Goodness
Nothing Is At Last Sacred But The Integrity Of Your Own Mind.
Motivational
Truth
Honesty
The Eye Is Easily Frightened.
Eye
Frightened
We Can See Well Into The Past; We Can Guess Shrewdly Into The Future, But That Which Is Rolled Up And Muffled In Impenetrable Folds Is Today.
Future
Past
Optimism
The Religions Are Obsolete When The Reforms Do Not Proceed From Them.
Religion
Reform
Obsolete
The Soul Contains The Event That Shall Befall It, For The Event Is Only The Actualization Of Its Thoughts; And What We Pray To Ourselves For Is Always Granted.
Soul
Events
Praying
Society Never Advances. It Recedes As Fast On One Side As It Gains On The Other. It Undergoes Continual Changes: It Is Barbarous, It Is Civilized, It Is Rich, It Is Scientific; But This Change Is Not Amelioration. For Every Thing That Is Given, Something Else Is Taken. Society Acquires New Arts And Loses Old Instincts.
Art
Taken
Gains
There Is An Optical Illusion About Every Person We Meet.
Optical Illusions
Transcendentalism
Illusion
Bring Me Wine, But Wine Which Never Grew In The Belly Of The Grape
Wine
Grapes
Grew
Life Has No Memory. That Which Proceeds In Succession Might Be Remembered, But That Which Is Coexistent, Or Ejaculated From A Deeper Cause, As Yet Far From Being Conscious, Knows Not Its Own Tendency.
Memories
Might
Causes
But, If A Man Would Be Alone, Let Him Look At The Stars. The Rays That Come From These Heavenly Worlds, Will Separate Between Him And What He Touches. One Might Think The Atmosphere Was Made Transparent With This Design, To Give Man, In The Heavenly Bodies, The Perpetual Presence Of The Sublime... But Every Night Come Out These Envoys Of Beauty, And Light The Universe With Their Admonishing Smile.
Stars
Night
Men
What A Man Does, That He Has. What Has He To Do With Hope Or Fear? In Himself Is His Might. Let Him Regard No Good As Solid But That Which Is In His Nature, And Which Must Grow Out Of Him As Long As He Exists. The Goods Of Fortune May Come And Go Like Summer Leaves; Let Him Scatter Them On Every Wind As The Momentary Signs Of His Infinite Productiveness.
Summer
Men
Wind
The Interminable Forests Should Become Graceful Parks, For Use And Delight.
Use
Delight
Parks
I Quote Another Man's Saying; Unluckily, That Other Withdraws Himself In The Same Way, And Quotes Me.
Men
Way
Another Man
Where There Is No Vision A People Perish.
People
Innovation
Insightful
People Only See What They Are Prepared To See. If You Look For What Is Good And What You Can Be Grateful For You Will Find It Everywhere.
Gratitude
Grateful
People
There Is Nothing Settled In Manners, But The Laws Of Behavior Yield To The Energy Of The Individual.
Yield
Law
Energy
When We Are Exalted By Ideas, We Do Not Owe This To Plato, But To The Idea, To Which Also Plato Was Debtor.
Plato
Ideas
Debtors
Belief And Love,--a Believing Love Will Relieve Us Of A Vast Load Of Care. O My Brothers, God Exists. There Is A Soul At The Centre Of Nature, And Over The Will Of Every Man, So That None Of Us Can Wrong The Universe.
God
Brother
Believe
A Little Consideration Of What Takes Place Around Us Every Day Would Show Us That A Higher Law Than That Of Our Will Regulates Events; That Our Painful Labors Are Unnecessary And Fruitless; That Only In Our Easy, Simple, Spontaneous Action Are We Strong . . . . Place Yourself In The Middle Of The Stream Of Power And Wisdom Which Animates All Whom It Floats, And You Are Without Effort Impelled To Truth, To Right, And A Perfect Contentment.
Strong
Powerful
Simple
Don't Hang A Dismal Picture On The Wall, And Do Not Daub With Sables And Glooms In Your Conversation. Don't Be A Cynic And Disconsolate Preacher. Don't Bewail And Bemoan. Omit The Negative Propositions. Nerve Us With Incessant Affirmatives. Don't Waste Yourself In Rejection, Nor Bark Against The Bad, But Chant The Beauty Of The Good. When That Is Spoken Which Has A Right To Be Spoken, The Chatter And The Criticism Will Stop. Set Down Nothing That Will Not Help Somebody.
Wall
Rejection
Criticism
Without Ambition One Starts Nothing. Without Work One Finishes Nothing. The Prize Will Not Be Sent To You. You Have To Win It. The Man Who Knows How Will Always Have A Job. The Man Who Also Knows Why Will Always Be His Boss. As To Methods There May Be A Million And Then Some, But Principles Are Few. The Man Who Grasps Principles Can Successfully Select His Own Methods. The Man Who Tries Methods, Ignoring Principles, Is Sure To Have Trouble.
Jobs
Work
Ambition
Each Moment Of The Year Has Its Own Beauty.
Years
Moments
Nature Beauty
The Amount Of A Man's Wealth Consists In The Number Of Things He Can Do Without.
Men
Numbers
Wealth
Silent Rushes The Swift Lord Through Ruined Systems Still Restored, Broadsowing, Bleak And Void To Bless, Plants With Worlds The Wilderness; Waters With Tears Of Ancient Sorrow Apples Of Eden Ripe To-morrow. House And Tenant Go To Ground, Lost In God, In Godhead Found.
God
Eden
Apples
Speak What You Think Today In Hard Words And Tomorrow Speak What Tomorrow Thinks In Hard Words Again, Though It Contradict Every Thing You Said Today.
Thinking
Today
Tomorrow
The Universe Is The Externisation Of The Soul. Wherever The Life Is, That Bursts Into Appearance Around It. Our Science Is Sensual, And Therefore Superficial. The Earth, And The Heavenly Bodies, Physics, And Chemistry, We Sensually Treat, As If They Were Self-existent; But These Are The Retinue Of That Being We Have.
Science
Self
Soul
The Secret Of Poetry Is Never Explained,— Is Always New. We Have Not Got Farther Than Mere Wonder At The Delicacy Of The Touch, And The Eternity It Inherits. In Every House A Child That In Mere Play Utters Oracles, And Knows Not That They Are Such. 't Is As Easy As Breath. 't Is Like This Gravity, Which Holds The Universe Together, And None Knows What It Is.
Children
Play
House
If You Meet A Sectary, Or A Hostile Partisan, Never Recognize The Dividing Lines; But Meet On What Common Ground Remains,--if Onlythat The Sun Shines, And The Rain Rains For Both; The Area Will Widen Very Fast, And Ere You Know It The Boundary Mountains, On Which The Eye Had Fastened, Have Melted Into Air.
Rain
Eye
Air
I Am Present At The Sowing Of The Seed Of The World. With A Geometry Of Sunbeams, The Soul Lays The Foundations Of Nature.
Knowledge
Soul
Foundation
Conversation Is An Art In Which A Man Has All Mankind For His Competitors, For It Is That Which All Are Practising Every Day While They Live.
Art
Men
Conversation
It Never Was In The Power Of Any Man Or Any Community To Call The Arts Into Being. They Come To Serve His Actual Wants, Never To Please His Fancy.
Art
Creativity
Men
We Are Ashamed Of Our Thoughts And Often See Them Brought Forth By Others.
Thinking
Ashamed
Our Thoughts
War Disorganizes, But It Is To Reorganize.
War
Our Thinking Is A Pious Reception.
Thoughtful
Thinking
Reception
Tell Them Dear, That If Eyes Were Made For Seeing, Then Beauty Is Its Own Excuse For Being: Why Thou Wert There, O Rival Of The Rose! I Never Sought To Ask, I Never Knew: But, In My Simple Ignorance Suppose The Selfsame Power That Brought Me There Brought You.
Beauty
Ignorance
Eye
Success To The Strongest, Who Are Always, At Last, The Wisest And Best.
Lasts
Strongest
Wisest
It Seems As If The Day Was Not Wholly Profane In Which We Have Given Heed To Some Natural Object.
Improvement
Natural
Given
A Chief Event Of Life Is The Day In Which We Have Encountered A Mind That Startled Us.
Life
Greatness
Mind
Nature Has Made Up Her Mind That What Cannot Defend Itself Shall Not Be Defended.
Nature
Mind
Made
You Must Elect Your Work; You Shall Take What Your Brains Can, And Drop All The Rest. Only So Can That Amount Of Vital Force Accumulate Which Can Make The Step From Knowing To Doing. No Matter How Much Faculty Of Idle Seeing A Man Has, The Step From Knowing To Doing Is Rarely Taken. It Is A Step Out Of A Chalk Circle Of Imbecility Into Fruitfulness.
Taken
Men
Circles
Nothing Is More Disgusting Than The Crowing About Liberty By Slaves, As Most Men Are, And The Flippant Mistaking For Freedom Of Some Paper Preamble Like A Declaration Of Independence, Or The Statute Right To Vote, By Those Who Have Never Dared To Think Or To Act.
Freedom
Men
Thinking
The Tempered Light Of The Woods Is Like A Perpetual Morning.
Nature
Morning
Light
Manners Aim To Facilitate Life, To Get Rid Of Impediments, And Bring The Man Pure To Energize. They Aid Our Dealing And Conversation, As A Railway Aids Travelling, By Getting Rid Of All Avoidable Obstructions Of The Road, And Leaving Nothing To Be Conquered But Pure Space.
Men
Space
Leaving
All Conservatives Are Such From Personal Defects. They Have Been Effiminated By Position Of Nature, Born Halt And Blind, Through Luxury Of Their Parents, And Can Only, Like Invalids, Act On The Defensive.
Nature
Luxury
Parent
Who Leaves The Pine-tree, Leaves His Friend, Unnerves His Strength, Invites His End.
Tree
Environment
Ends
Our Spontaneous Action Is Always The Best. You Cannot, With Your Best Deliberation And Heed, Come So Close To Any Question As Your Spontaneous Glance Shall Bring You.
Action
Spontaneity
Spontaneous
Sooner Or Later That Which Is Now Life Shall Be Poetry, And Every Fair And Manly Trait Shall Add A Richer Strain To The Song.
Life
Song
Add
The Senses Collect The Surface Facts Of Matter... It Was Sensation; When Memory Came, It Was Experience; When Mind Acted, It Was Knowledge; When Mind Acted On It As Knowledge, It Was Thought.
Memories
Mind
Matter
A House Is Made With Walls And Beams; A Home Is Built With Love And Dreams.
Dream
Wall
Home
The Nonchalance Of Boys Who Are Sure Of A Dinner, And Would Disdain As Much As A Lord To Do Or Say Aught To Conciliate One, Is The Healthy Attitude Of Human Nature.
Attitude
Boys
Healthy
The Highest Praise We Can Attribute To Any Writer, Painter, Sculptor, Builder, Is, That He Actually Possessed The Thought Or Feeling With Which He Has Inspired Us.
Inspirational
Art
Feelings
Thoughts Rule The World.
Thinking
World
The Senses Interfere Everywhere, And Mix Their Own Structure With All They Report Of.
Perception
Structure
Senses
It Is Not What Talents Or Genius A Man Has, But How He Is To His Talents, That Constitutes Friendship And Character. The Man Thatstands By Himself, The Universe Stands By Him Also.
Character
Men
Genius
A Man Must Be Clothed With Society, Or We Shall Feel A Certain Bareness And Poverty, As Of A Displaced And Unfurnished Member. He Is To Be Dressed In Arts And Institutions, As Well As In Body Garments. Now And Then A Man Exquisitely Made Can Live Alone, And Must; But Coop Up Most Men And You Undo Them.
Art
Men
Body
I Now Require This Of All Pictures, That They Domesticate Me, Not That They Dazzle Me. Pictures Must Not Be Too Picturesque. Nothing Astonishes Men So Much As Common-sense And Plain Dealing. All Great Actions Have Been Simple, And All Great Pictures Are.
Art
Men
Simple
Let Us Unlearn Our Wisdom Of The World. Let Us Lie Low In The Lord's Power, And Learn That Truth Alone Makes Rich And Great.
God
Lying
World
Science Surpasses The Old Miracles Of Mythology.
Science
Miracle
Mythology
There Is A Certain Satisfaction In Coming Down To The Lowest Ground Of Politics, For We Get Rid Of Cant And Hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy
Politics
Satisfaction
We Aim Above The Mark, To Hit The Mark. Every Act Hath Some Falsehood Of Exaggeration In It.
Mark
Aim
Exaggeration
A Man's Growth Is Seen In The Successive Choirs Of His Friends.
Friendship
Real Friends
Greatness
Every Heroic Act Measures Itself By Its Contempt Of Some External Good. But It Finds Its Own Success At Last, And Then The Prudent Also Extol.
Heroism
Lasts
Prudent
Give The Slave The Least Elevation Of Religious Sentiment, And He Is Not Slave: You Are The Slave: He Not Only In His Humility Feels His Superiority, Feels That Much Deplored Condition Of His To Be A Fading Trifle, But He Makes You Feel It Too. He Is The Master.
Religious
Humility
Giving
Life Is Not So Short But That There Is Always Time Enough For Courtesy.
Life
Time
Kindness
Again, The Great Number Of Cultivated Men Keep Each Other Up To A High Standard. The Habit Of Meeting Well-read And Knowing Men Teaches The Art Of Omission And Selection.
Art
Men
Numbers
Be Yourself; No Base Imitator Of Another, But Your Best Self.
Being Yourself
Self
Best Self
The Piety Of The Hebrew Prophets Purges Their Grossness. The Circumcision Is An Example Of The Power Of Poetry To Raise The Low And Offensive.
Symbolism
Example
Circumcision
Say Thank You! I Want To Hear You Say It Now. Out Loud. 'thank You.' You're Saying Thank You Because Your Faith Is So Strong That You Don't Doubt That Whatever The Problem, You'll Get Through It. You're Saying Thank You Because You Know That Even In The Eye Of The Storm, God Has Put A Rainbow In The Clouds. You're Saying Thank You Because You Know There's No Problem Created That Can Compare To The Creator Of All Things. Say Thank You!
Happiness
Strong
Eye
Nothing Divine Dies. All Good Is Eternally Reproductive. The Beauty Of Nature Re-forms Itself In The Mind, And Not For Barren Contemplation, But For New Creation.
Mind
Creation
Nature Beauty
I Will No Longer Confer, Differ, Refer, Defer, Prefer, Or Suffer. I Renounce The Whole Tribe Of Fero. I Embrace Absolute Life.
Thinking
Suffering
Tribes
Raphael Paints Wisdom, Handel Sings It, Phidias Carves It, Shakespeare Writes It, Wren Builds It, Columbus Sails It, Luther Preaches It, Washington Arms It, Watt Mechanizes It.
Wisdom
Writing
Wrens
The Progress Of Religion Is Steadily To Its Identity With Morals. Strength Enters Just As Much As The Moral Element Prevails.
Religious
Progress
Identity
It Is Easy To Live For Others, Everybody Does. I Call On You To Live For Yourself.
Inspirational
Integrity
Self Esteem
The Lover Of Nature Is He Whose Inward And Outward Senses Are Still Truly Adjusted To Each Other; Who Has Retained The Spirit Of Infancy Even Into The Era Of Manhood. His Intercourse With Heaven And Earth, Becomes Part Of His Daily Food. In The Presence Of Nature, A Wild Delight Runs Through The Man, In Spite Of Real Sorrows.
Running
Real
Men
An Action Is The Perfection And Publication Of Thought.
Perfection
Action
Publication
The Path Of Things Is Silent. Will They Suffer A Speaker To Go With Them?
Silence
Suffering
Path
Whoever Fights, Whoever Falls, Justice Conquers Evermore
Fall
Fighting
Justice
Do What You Fear And Your Fear Will Die.
Encouraging
Fear
Dies
Society Cannot Do Without Cultivated Men. As Soon As The First Wants Are Satisfied, The Higher Wants Become Imperative.
Men
Society
Culture
I Have Just Been Conversing With One Man, To Whom No Weight Of Adverse Experience Will Make It For A Moment Appear Impossible That Thousands Of Human Beings Might Exercise Towards Each Other The Grandest And Simplest Sentiments, As Well As A Knot Of Friends, Or A Pair Of Lovers.
Exercise
Men
Weight
If You Would Rule The World Quietly, You Must Keep It Amused.
World
Ifs
Amused
On Bravely Through The Sunshine And The Showers! Time Hath His Work To Do, And We Have Ours.
Work
Sunshine
Showers
Self Trust Is The Essence Of Heroism.
Confidence
Running
Wisdom
And What Avails It That Science Has Come To Treat Space And Time As Simply Forms Of Thought, And The Material World As Hypothetical, And Withal Our Pretension Of Property And Even Of Self-hood Are Fading With The Rest, If, At Last, Even Our Thoughts Are Not Finalities, But The Incessant Flowing And Ascension Reach These Also, And Each Thought Which Yesterday Was A Finality, To-day Is Yielding To A Larger Generalization?
Knowledge
Thinking
Thoughtful
The Question Is Whether [suicide] Is The Way Out, Or The Way In.
Suicide
Way
Society Always Consists In The Greatest Part, Of Young And Foolish Persons.
Society
Foolish
Young
This Is My Wish For You: Comfort On Difficult Days, Smiles When Sadness Intrudes, Rainbows To Follow The Clouds, Laughter To Kiss Your Lips, Sunsets To Warm Your Heart, Hugs When Spirits Sag, Beauty For Your Eyes To See, Friendships To Brighten Your Being, Faith So That You Can Believe, Confidence For When You Doubt, Courage To Know Yourself, Patience To Accept The Truth, Love To Complete Your Life.
Smile
Confidence
Patience
Every Burned Book Enlightens The World.
Book
World
Censorship
There Is In Nature A Parallel Unity Which Corresponds To The Unity In The Mind And Makes It Available. This Methodizing Mind Meets No Resistance In Its Attempts. The Scattered Blocks, With Which It Strives To Form A Symmetrical Structure, Fit. This Design Following After Finds With Joy That Like Design Went Before. Not Only Man Puts Things In A Row, But Things Belong In A Row.
Block
Men
Design
I Should As Soon Think Of Swimming Across Charles River, When I Wish To Go To Boston, As Of Reading All My Books In Originals, When I Have Them Rendered For Me In My Mother Tongue.
Mother
Reading
Book
But Every Jet Of Chaos Which Threatens To Exterminate Us Is Convertible By Intellect Into Wholesome Force. Fate Is Unpenetrated Causes.
Fate
Causes
Chaos
A True Man Belongs To No Other Time Or Place, But Is The Center Of Things.
Men
True Man
Every Sentence Spoken By Napoleon, And Every Line Of His Writing, Deserves Reading, As It Is The Sense Of France.
Reading
Writing
Lines
If, At Any Time, It Comes Into My Head, That A Present Is Due From Me To Somebody, I Am Puzzled What To Give, Until The Opportunity Is Gone.
Opportunity
Giving
Gone
The Greatest Gift Is A Portion Of Thyself.
Teacher
Appreciation
Teaching
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.
Powerful
Spring
Passion
Mankind Have Such A Deep Stake In Inward Illumination, That There Is Much To Be Said By The Hermit Or Monk In Defence Of His Life Of Thought And Prayer.
Prayer
Illumination
Inward
I Know Nothing Which Life Has To Offer So Satisfying As The Profound Good Understanding, Which Can Subsist, After Much Exchange Ofgood Offices, Between Two Virtuous Men, Each Of Whom Is Sure Of Himself, And Sure Of His Friend. It Is A Happiness Which Postpones All Other Gratifications, And Makes Politics, And Commerce, And Churches, Cheap.
Friendship
Men
Two
In This Distribution Of Functions, The Scholar Is The Delegated Intellect. In The Right State, He Is, Man Thinking. In The Degenerate State, When The Victim Of Society, He Tends To Become A Mere Thinker, Or, Still Worse, The Parrot Of Other Men's Thinking.
Thinking
Men
Degenerates
A Sage Is The Instructor Of A Hundred Ages.
Intelligent
Age
Hundred
The Secret Of Success In Education Is Respecting The Students.
Secret
Students
Secret To Success
There Is Creative Reading As Well As Creative Writing.
Education
Reading
Writing
Nor Count Compartments Of The Floors, But Mount To Paradise By The Stairway Of Surprise.
Paradise
Surprise
Stairways
For Everything You Have Missed, You Have Gained Something Else, And For Everything You Gain, You Lose Something Else.
Love
Life
I Miss You
The Genius Is A Genius By The First Look He Casts On Any Object. Is His Eye Creative? Does He Not Rest In Angles And Colors, But Beholds The Design,--he Will Presently Undervalue The Actual Object.
Eye
Color
Creative
I Hope In These Days We Have Heard The Last Of Conformity And Consistency. Let The Words Be Gazetted And Ridiculous Henceforward.instead Of The Gong For Dinner, Let Us Hear A Whistle From The Spartan Fife.
Consistency
Dinner
Lasts
It Is The Doctrine Of The Popular Music-masters, That Whoever Can Speak Can Sing. So, Probably, Every Man Is Eloquent Once In His Life. Our Temperaments Differ In Capacity Of Heat, Or
Men
Doctrine
Heat
Virtue Alone Is Sweet Society, It Keeps The Key To All Heroic Hearts, And Opens You A Welcome In Them All.
Sweet
Heart
Keys
Each Philosopher, Each Bard, Each Actor Has Only Done For Me, As By A Delegate, What One Day I Can Do For Myself.
One Day
Actors
Done
Best Masters For The Young Writer And Speaker Are The Fault- Finding Brothers And Sisters At Home Who Will Not Spare Him, But Willpick And Cavil, And Tell The Odious Truth.
Brother
Home
Fault Finding
In Spite Of Warnings, Change Rarely Occurs Until The Status Quo Becomes More Painful Than Change. People Seem Not To See That Their Opinion Of The World Is Also A Confession Of Their Character.
Character
People
Warning
Life Is A Series Of Surprises.
Life
Anticipation
Surprise
The World Looks Like A Multiplication-table, Or A Mathematical Equation, Which, Turn It How You Will, Balances Itself.
Mathematical Equations
Balance
Looks
We Early Arrive At The Great Discovery That There Is One Mind Common To All Individual Men: That What Is Individual Is Less Than What Is Universalthat Error, Vice And Disease Have Their Seat In The Superficial Or Individual Nature.
Men
Errors
Discovery
Each Man, If He Attempts To Join Himself To Others, Is On All Sides Cramped And Diminished Of His Proportion; And The Stricter Theunion, The Smaller And The More Pitiful He Is. But Leave Him Alone, To Recognize In Every Hour And Place The Secret Soul, He Will Go Up And Down Doing The Works Of A True Member, And, To The Astonishment Of All, The Work Will Be Done With Concert, Though No Man Spoke.
Men
Soul
Secret
I Do Not Count The Hours I Spend In Wandering By The Sea; The Forest Is My Loyal Friend, Like God It Useth Me.
Sea
Loyal
Forests
We Live By Our Imagination, Our Admirations, And Our Sentiments.
Imagination
Admiration
Live By
An Individual Man Is A Fruit Which It Cost All The Foregoing Ages To Form And Ripen. He Is Strong, Not To Do, But To Live; Not In His Arms, But In His Heart; Not As An Agent, But As A Fact.
Strong
Heart
Men
Shall We Then Judge A Country By The Majority, Or By The Minority? By The Minority, Surely. 'tis Pedantry To Estimate Nations By The Census, Or By Square Miles Of Land, Or Other Than By Their Importance To The Mind Of The Time.
Country
Land
Squares
Give Me Insight Into Today And You May Have The Antique And Future Worlds.
Time
Future
Giving
The Solid, Solid Universe Is Pervious To Love; With Bandaged Eyes He Never Errs, Around, Below, Above. His Blinding Light He Flingeth White On God's And Satan's Brood, And Reconciles By Mystic Wiles The Evil And The Good.
Life
Eye
Light
Truth Gathers Itself Spotless And Unhurt After All Our Surrenders And Concealments And Partisanship; Never Hurt By The Treachery Or Ruin Of Its Best Defenders, Whether Luther, Or William Penn, Or St. Paul.
Hurt
Truth
Ruins
Character Is Always Known. Thefts Never Enrich; Alms Never Impoverish; Murder Will Speak Out Of Stone Walls.
Wall
Character
Native American
All Great Men Come Out Of The Middle Classes.
Men
Class
Middle
In The True Mythology, Love Is An Immortal Child, And Beauty Leads Him As A Guide; Nor Can We Express A Deeper Sense Than When We Say, Beauty Is The Pilot Of The Young Soul.
Beauty
Children
Love Is
Intemperance Is The Only Vulgarity.
Intemperance
Vulgarity
People Are Very Inclined To Set Moral Standards For Others.
People
Hypocrisy
Moral
Wherever There Is Power, There Is Age. Don't Be Deceived By Dimples And Curls. I Tell You That Babe Is A Thousand Years Old.
Power
Years
Age
Wise Men Read Very Sharply All Your Private History In Your Look And Gait And Behavior. The Whole Economy Of Nature Is Bent On Expression. The Tell-tale Body Is All Tongues. Men Are Like Geneva Watches With Crystal Faces Which Expose The Whole Movement.
Wise
Men
Expression
When A Man Thinks Happily, He Finds No Foot-track In The Field He Traverses. All Spontaneous Thought Is Irrespective Of All Else.
Men
Thinking
Feet
A Child Is A Curly, Dimpled Lunatic.
Motivational
Baby
Children
If I Quake, What Matters It What I Quake At? Our Proper Vice Takes Form In One Or Another Shape, According To The Sex, Age, Or Temperament Of The Person, And, If We Are Capable Of Fear, Will Readily Find Terrors.
Sex
Fear
What Matters
The Stupidity Of Men Always Invites The Insolence Of Power.
Stupid
Power
Men
A Man Is The Prisoner Of His Power. A Topical Memory Makes Him An Almanac; A Talent For Debate, Disputant; Skill To Get Money Makes Him A Miser, That Is, A Beggar. Culture Reduces These Inflammations By Invoking The Aid Of Other Powers Against The Dominant Talent, And By Appealing To The Rank Of Powers. It Watches Success.
Memories
Power
Men
Love And You Shall Be Loved. All Love Is Mathematically Just, As Much As Two Sides Of An Algebraic Equation.
Love
Romantic
Girlfriend
We Love It Because It Is Self Dependent, Self Derived, And Therefore Of An Old Immaculate Pedigree, Even If Shown In A Young Person.
Self
Pedigree
Young
A Man Is Like A Bit Of Labrador Spar, Which Has No Lustre As You Turn It In Your Hand Until You Come To A Particular Angle; Then It Shows Deep And Beautiful Colors. There Is No Adaptation Or Universal Applicability In Men, But Each Has His Special Talent, And The Mastery Of Successful Men Consists In Adroitly Keeping Themselves Where And When That Turn Shall Be Oftenest To Be Practiced.
Beautiful
Successful
Men
The Foolish Man Wonders At The Unusual, But The Wise Man At The Usual.
Wise
Men
Foolish Man
The House Is A Castle Which The King Cannot Enter.
Kings
Home
House
There Are Always Difficulties Arising That Tempt You To Believe Your Critics Are Right.
Motivational
Courage
Believe
Invention Breeds Invention. No Sooner Is The Electric Telegraph Devised Than Gutta-percha, The Very Material It Requires, Is Found. The Aeronaut Is Provided With Gun-cotton, The Very Fuel He Wants For His Balloon.
Science
Gun
Fuel
There Is No Teaching Until The Pupil Is Brought Into The Same State Or Principle In Which You Are; A Transfusion Takes Place; He Is You, And You Are He; Then Is A Teaching; And By No Unfriendly Chance Or Bad Company Can He Ever Lose The Benefit.
Teaching
Benefits
Principles
Tis A Rule Of Manners To Avoid Exaggeration.
Manners
Exaggeration
Exaggerating
No Rent-roll Nor Army-list Can Dignify Skulking And Dissimulation: And The First Point Of Courtesy Must Always Be Truth, As Really All The Forms Of Good-breeding Point That Way.
Army
Way
Firsts
The Mob Is Man Voluntarily Descending To The Nature Of The Beast. Its Fit Hour Of Activity Is Night. Its Actions Are Insane Like Its Whole Constitution. It Persecutes A Principle; It Would Whip A Right; It Would Tar And Feather Justice, By Inflicting Fire And Outrage Upon The Houses And Persons Of Those Who Have These. It Resembles The Prank Of Boys, Who Run With Fire-engines To Put Out The Ruddy Aurora Streaming To The Stars.
Running
Stars
Boys
No Matter How Often Defeated, You Are Born To Victory.
Defeated You
Victory
Matter
He Who Has A Thousand Friends Has Not A Friend To Spare, While He Who Has One Enemy Shall Meet Him Everywhere.
Inspirational
Friendship
Enemy
Trending Author
Esther Dyson
Betty Dodson
Kate Chopin
Immanuel Kant
Eleanora Duse
Merlin Olsen
Category
Information