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The Craft Of The Merchant Is This Bringing A Thing Where It Abounds To Where It Is Costly.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The Craft Of The

Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The Craft Of The Merchant Is This Bringing A Thing Where It Abounds To Where It Is Costly.

Understanding the Quote: "the craft of the merchant is this bringing a thing where it..."

This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects deeply on the theme of crafts. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Crafts, Merchants, 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 crafts and merchants. 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.

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Topic
Crafts
Merchants
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I Hear Therefore With Joy Whatever Is Beginning To Be Said Of The Dignity And Necessity Of Labor To Every Citizen. There Is Virtue Yet In The Hoe And The Spade, For Learned As Well As For Unlearned Hands. And Labor Is Everywhere Welcome; Always We Are Invited To Work; Only Be This Limitation Observed, That A Man Shall Not For The Sake Of Wider Activity Sacrifice Any Opinion To The Popular Judgments And Modes Of Action.
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Good As Is Discourse, Silence Is Better And Shames It.
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Shame
Discourse
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People
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Chaos
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Soul
Secret
People Are Timid And Apologetic; They Are No Longer Upright; They Dare Not Say "i Think," "i Am," But Quote Some Saint Or Sage. They Are Ashamed Before The Blade Of Grass Or The Blowing Rose. These Roses Under My Window Make No Reference To Former Roses Or To Better Ones; They Are For What They Are; They Exist With God To-day.
Confidence
Thinking
People
The World We Live In Is But Thickened Light.
Light
World
When A Man Lives With God, His Voice Shall Be As Sweet As The Murmur Of The Brook And Rustle Of The Corn.
Life
Sweet
Men
A Man Must Be In Sympathy With Society Around Him, Or Else, Not Wish To Be In Sympathy With It. If Neither Of These Two, He Must Be Wretched.
Men
Two
Humanity
There Is No God Dare Wrong A Worm.
Worms
Dare
There Is No God
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
Thought Makes Everything Fit For Use.
Thinking
Ideas
Use
The Action Of The Soul Is Oftener In That Which Is Felt And Left Unsaid Than In That Which Is Said In Any Conversation. It Broods Over Every Society, And Men Unconsciously Seek For It In Each Other.
Men
Soul
Action
Men Lose Their Tempers In Defending Their Taste.
Men
Taste
Temper
The Wave Of Evil Washes All Our Institutions Alike.
Evil
Vengeance
Wave
A Man's Fortunes Are The Fruit Of His Character. A Man's Friends Are His Magnetisms.
Friends
Character
Fate
When I Bought My Farm, I Did Not Know What A Bargain I Had In The Bluebirds, Daffodils And Thrushes; As Little Did I Know What Sublime Mornings And Sunsets I Was Buying.
Morning
Sunset
Sublime
Let The Bird Sing Without Deciphering The Song.
Song
Learning
Knowledge
The Goof Man, In Dealing With His People, Taxes Them With Luxury.
Men
Luxury
People
Great Men Are Sincere.
Greatness
Men
Sincere
Almost Every Man We Meet Requires Some Civility; Requires To Be Humored; - He Has Some Fame, Some Talent, Some Whim Of Religion Or Philanthropy In His Head That Is Not To Be Questioned, And Which Spoils All Conversation With Him. But A Friend Is A Sane Man Who Exercises Not My Ingenuity, But Me.
Friendship
Exercise
Men
Though The Wide Universe Is Full Of Good, No Kernel Of Nourishing Corn Can Come To Him But Through His Toil Bestowed On That Plot Of Ground Which Is Given To Him To Till.
Self Reliance
Toil
Plot
We Must Set Up A Strong Present Tense Against All Rumors Of Wrath, Past And To Come.
Strong
Past
Wrath
Genius Is The Naturalist Or Geographer Of The Supersensible Regions, And Draws Their Map; And, By Acquainting Us With New Fields Of Activity, Cools Our Affection For The Old. These Are At Once Accepted As The Reality, Of Which The World We Have Conversed With Is The Show.
Reality
Genius
World
The Squirrel Hoards Nuts And The Bee Gathers Honey, Without Knowing What They Do, And They Are Thus Provided For Without Selfishness Or Disgrace.
Work
Squirrels
Nuts
For You, O Broker, There Is No Other Principle But Arithmetic. For Me, Commerce Is Of Trivial Import; Love, Faith, Truth Of Character, The Aspiration Of Man, These Are Sacred; Nor Can I Detach One Duty, Like You, From All Other Duties, And Concentrate My Forces Mechanically On The Payment Of Moneys.
Money
Character
Men
The Only Right Is What Is After My Constitution; The Only Wrong Is What Is Against It.
Self Reliance
Constitution
Reliance
It Is Better To Be A Thorn In The Side Of A Friend Than An Echo.
Echoes
Sides
The Whole World Is An Omen And A Sign. Why Look So Wistfully In A Corner? Man Is The Image Of God. Why Run After A Ghost Or A Dream? The Voice Of Divination Resounds Everywhere And Runs To Waste Unheard, Unregarded, As The Mountains Echo With The Bleatings Of Cattle.
God
Running
Dream
When The Act Of Reflection Takes Place In The Mind, When We Look At Ourselves In The Light Of Thought, We Discover That Our Life Is Embosomed In Beauty.
Life
Philosophical
Reflection
I Suppose Every Old Scholar Has Had The Experience Of Reading Something In A Book Which Was Significant To Him, But Which He Could Never Find Again. Sure He Is That He Read It There, But No One Else Ever Read It, Nor Can He Find It Again, Though He Buy The Book And Ransack Every Page.
Book
Reading
Pages
We Call The Beautiful The Highest, Because It Appears To Us The Golden Mean, Escaping The Dowdiness Of The Good And The Heartlessness Of The True.
Beauty
Beautiful
Mean
A Collector Recently Bought At Public Auction, In London, For One Hundred And Fifty-seven Guineas, An Autograph Of Shakespeare; But For Nothing A School-boy Can Read Hamlet And Can Detect Secrets Of Highest Concernment Yet Unpublished Therein.
Book
School
Boys
Be Brave Enough To Do The Loving Thing.
Attitude
Brave
Be Brave
The Writer, Like A Priest, Must Be Exempted From Secular Labor. His Work Needs A Frolic Health; He Must Be At The Top Of His Condition.
Needs
Authorship
Priests
The Day Is Always His, Who Works In It With Serenity And Great Aims.
Wise
Serenity
Aim
Do The Thing And You Will Have The Power. But They That Do Not The Thing, Had Not The Power.
Power
The World Is Filled With The Proverbs And Acts And Winkings Of A Base Prudence, Which Is A Devotion To Matter, As If We Possessedno Other Faculties Than The Palate, The Nose, The Touch, The Eye And Ear; A Prudence Which Adores The Rule Of Three, Which Never Subscribes, Which Never Gives, Which Seldom Lends, And Asks But One Question Of Any Project,--will It Bake Bread?
Eye
Giving
Three
Hume's Doctrine Was That The Circumstances Vary, The Amount Of Happiness Does Not; That The Beggar Cracking Fleas In The Sunshine Under A Hedge, And The Duke Rolling By In His Chariot, The Girl Equipped For Her First Ball, And The Orator Returning Triumphant From The Debate, Had Different Means, But The Same Quantity Of Pleasant Excitement.
Happiness
Girl
Mean
I Think No Virtue Goes With Size;the Reason Of All Cowardiceis, That Men Are Overgrown,and, To Be Valiant, Must Come Downto The Titmouse Dimension.
Thinking
Men
Size
Truth Has Already Ceased To Be Itself If Polemically Said.
Truth
Said
Ifs
We Are Thus Assisted By Natural Objects In The Expression Of Particular Meanings. But How Great A Language To Convey Such Pepper-corn Informations!
Expression
Corn
Peppers
Though We Travel The World Over To Find The Beautiful, We Must Carry It With Us, Or We Find It Not. The Best Of Beauty Is A Finer Charm Than Skill In Surfaces, In Outlines, Or Rules Of Art Can Ever Teach, Namely, A Radiation From The Work Of Art Of Human Character, — A Wonderful Expression Through Stone, Or Canvas, Or Musical Sound, Of The Deepest And Simplest Attributes Of Our Nature, And Therefore Most Intelligible At Last To Those Souls Which Have These Attributes.
Beautiful
Art
Character
We Do Not Yet Trust The Unknown Power Of Thoughts.
Trust
Power Of Thought
The Masses Have No Habit Of Self-reliance Or Original Action.
Self
Action
Habit
Literature Is The Effort Of Man To Indemnify Himself For The Wrongs Of His Condition.
Music
Men
Effort
For What Are They All In Their High Conceit, When Man In The Bush With God May Meet?
Men
Conceited
May
He Who Has Acquired The Ability, May Wait Securely The Occasion Of Making It Felt And Appreciated, And Know That It Will Not Loiter.
Waiting
May
Appreciated
You've Got To Be Taught To Be Afraid Of People Whose Eyes Are Oddly Made And People Whose Skin Is A Different Shade.
Eye
People
Skins
Good Writing Is A Kind Of Skating Which Carries Off The Performer Where He Would Not Go, And Is Only Right Admirable When To All Its Beauty And Speed A Subserviency To The Will, Like That Of Walking, Is Added.
Writing
Skating
Kind
It Is Defeat Which Educates Us.
Defeat
Educate
The Interminable Forests Should Become Graceful Parks, For Use And Delight.
Use
Delight
Parks
As The Gardener, By Severe Pruning, Forces The Sap Of The Tree Into One Or Two Vigorous Limbs, So Should You Stop Off Your Miscellaneous Activity And Concentrate Your Force On One Or A Few Points.
Motivational
Two
Tree
When He Is Pushed, Tormented, Defeated, He Has A Chance To Learn Something; He Has Been Put On His Wits, On His Manhood; He Has Gained Facts; Learns His Ignorance; Is Cured Of The Insanity Of Conceit; Has Got Moderation And Real Skill.
Learning
Men
Chance
So Each Man, Like Each Plant, Has His Parasites. A Strong, Astringent, Bilious Nature Has More Truculent Enemies Than The Slugs And Moths That Fret My Leaves. Such A One Has Curculios, Borers, Knife-worms; A Swindler Ate Him First, Then A Client, Then A Quack, Then Smooth, Plausible Gentlemen, Bitter And Selfish As Moloch.
Strong
Selfish
Character
Come, See The North-wind's Masonry, Out Of An Unseen Quarry Evermore Furnished With Tile, The Fierce Artificer Curves His White Bastions With Projected Roof Round Every Windward Stake, Or Tree, Or Door. Speeding, The Myriad-handed, His Wild Work So Fanciful, So Savage, Naught Cares He For Number Or Proportion.
Nature
Travel
White
When A Happy Person Comes Into The Room, It Is As If Another Candle Has Been Lit.
Rooms
Happy Person
Lit
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