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The Task Ahead Of Us Is Never As Great As The Power Behind Us.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The Task Ahead Of

Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The Task Ahead Of Us Is Never As Great As The Power Behind Us.

Understanding the Quote: "the task ahead of us is never as great as the power..."

This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects deeply on the theme of inspirational. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Inspirational, Change, Recovery, 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 inspirational and change. 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
Inspirational
Change
Recovery
More From Ralph Waldo Emerson
Poverty, Frost, Famine, Rain, Disease, Are The Beadles And Guardsmen That Hold Us To Common Sense.
Inspirational
Rain
Adversity
The Conscious Utterance Of Thought, By Speech Or Action, To Any End, Is Art.
Art
Utterance
Speech
Men Succeed When They Realize That Their Failures Are The Preparation For Their Victories.
Motivational
Learning
Adversity
Genius Always Finds Itself A Century Too Early.
Intelligence
Genius
Talent
But I Shall Hear Without Pain, That I Play The Courtier Very Ill, And Talk Of That Which I Do Not Well Understand.
Pain
Play
Ill
To Be Rich Is To Have A Ticket Of Admission To The Masterworks And Chief Men Of Each Race. It Is To Have The Sea, By Voyaging; To Visit The Mountains, Niagara, The Nile, The Desert, Rome, Paris, Constantinople: To See Galleries, Libraries, Arsenals, Manufactories.
Men
Race
Rome
There Is More In Every Person's Soul Than We Think.
Thinking
Soul
Persons
The Present Is An Edifice Which God Cannot Rebuild.
Edifice
Persons Are Fine Things, But They Cost So Much! For Thee I Must Pay Me.
Cost
Pay
Fine Things
If I Have Renounced The Search Of Truth, If I Have Come Into The Port Of Some Pretending Dogmatism, Some New Church, Some Schelling Or Cousin, I Have Died To All Use Of These New Events That Are Born Out Of Prolific Time Into Multitude Of Life Every Hour. I Am As Bankrupt To Whom Brilliant Opportunities Offer In Vain. He Has Just Foreclosed His Freedom, Tied His Hands, Locked Himself Up And Given The Key To Another To Keep.
Cousin
Truth
Opportunity
Health, South Wind, Books, Old Trees, A Boat, A Friend.
Happiness
Book
Wind
We Sell The Thrones Of Angels For A Short And Turbulent Pleasure.
Angel
Thrones
Pleasure
Those Who Live To The Future Must Always Appear Selfish To Those Who Live To The Present.
Time
Selfish
Future
Must We Always Talk For Victory, And Never Once For Truth, For Comfort, And Joy?
Comfort And Joy
Joy
Victory
Fame Is Proof That The People Are Gullible.
People
Gullible
Fame
Life Itself Is ... A Sleep Within A Sleep.
Life
Sleep
Love And You Shall Be Loved. All Love Is Mathematically Just, As Much As Two Sides Of An Algebraic Equation.
Love
Romantic
Girlfriend
The Craft With Which The World Is Made Runs Also Into The Mind And Character Of Men. No Man Is Quite Sane; Each Has A Vein Of Folly In His Composition, A Slight Determination Of Blood To The Head, To Make Sure Of Holding Him Hard To Some One Point Which Nature Has Taken To Heart.
Running
Determination
Taken
Each Man Too Is A Tyrant In Tendency, Because He Would Impose His Idea On Others; And Their Trick Is Their Natural Defence. Jesuswould Absorb The Race; But Tom Paine Or The Coarsest Blasphemer Helps Humanity By Resisting This Exuberance Of Power.
Men
Tyrants
Ideas
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
How Silent, How Spacious, What Room For All, Yet Without Place To Insert An Atom--in Graceful Succession, In Equal Fullness, In Balanced Beauty, The Dance Of The Hours Goes Forward Still. Like An Odor Of Incense, Like A Strain Of Music, Like A Sleep, It Is Inexact And Boundless. It Will Not Be Dissected, Nor Unraveled, Nor Shown.
Time
Sleep
Incense
Religion Is To Do Right. It Is To Love, It Is To Serve, It Is To Think, It Is To Be Humble.
Religious
Humility
Humble
How Shall A Man Escape From His Ancestors, Or Draw Off From His Veins The Black Drop Which He Drew From His Father's Or Mother's Life?
Mother
Father
Men
Economy Does Not Consist In Saving The Coal, But In Using The Time While It Burns.
Doe
Coal
Saving
Where Dwells The Religion? Tell Me First Where Dwells Electricity, Or Motion, Or Thought Or Gesture. They Do Not Dwell Or Stay Atall. Electricity Cannot Be Made Fast, Mortared Up And Ended, Like London Monument, Or The Tower, So That You Shall Know Where To Find It, And Keep It Fixed, As The English Do With Their Things, Forevermore; It Is Passing, Glancing, Gesticular; It Is A Traveller, A Newness, A Surprise, A Secret Which Perplexes Them, And Puts Them Out.
Secret
Religion
Towers
The Two Parties Which Divide The State, The Party Of Conservation And That Of Innovation, Are Very Old, And Have Disputed The Possession Of The World Ever Since It Was Made.
Party
Two
Political
When There Is No Vision, People Perish.
People
Vision
Visualization
In Dreams We Are True Poets; We Create The Persons Of The Drama; We Give Them Appropriate Figures Faces, Costumes; They Are Perfect In Their Organs, Attitudes, Manners; Moreover They Speak After Their Own Characters, Not Ours; And We Listen With Surprise To What They Say.
Dream
Attitude
Drama
When A Thought Of Plato Becomes A Thought To Me,--when A Truth That Fired The Soul Of Pindar Fires Mine, Time Is No More. When I Feel That We Two Meet In A Perception, That Our Two Souls Are Tinged With The Same Hue, And Do As It Were Run Into One, Why Should I Measure Degrees Of Latitude, Why Should I Count Egyptian Years?
Running
Plato
Years
The Life Of Labor Does Not Make Men, But Drudges.
Work
Men
Doe
Good As Is Discourse, Silence Is Better And Shames It.
Silence
Shame
Discourse
There Is A Good Ear, In Some Men, That Draws Supplies To Virtue Out Of Very Indifferent Nutriment.
Men
Stressed
Ears
The Reward Of Commercial Civilization Is The Ability To Consume A Never-ending Array Of Products.there Are Limits Beyond Which Commodities Cannot Be Multiplied Without Preventing Their Consumers From Affirming Themselves Through The Exercise Of Their Personal Freedom.when Market Dependence Reaches A Certain Threshold It Deprives People Of Their Power To Live Creatively And To Act Autonomously. And Precisely Because This New Impotence Is So Deeply Experienced, It Is Expressed With Difficulty.
Exercise
Civilization
People
The Rain Has Spoiled The Farmer's Day; Shall Sorrow Put My Books Away? Thereby Are Two Days Lost.
Book
Rain
Loss
Where There Is No Vision A People Perish.
People
Innovation
Insightful
Moderation In All Things, Especially Moderation.
Moderation
Moderation In All Things
All Things
Knowledge Is The Antidote To Fear. [especially As Fear Often Stands For False Evidence Appearing Real!]
Real
Anticipation
Evidence
The Day Is Always His, Who Works In It With Serenity And Great Aims.
Wise
Serenity
Aim
The End Of The Human Race Will Be That It Will Eventually Die Of Civilization.
Life
Peace
War
People Who Wash Much Have A High Mind About It, And Talk Down To Those Who Wash Little.
People
Mind
Littles
At The Gates Of The Forest, The Surprised Man Of The World Is Forced To Leave His City Estimates Of Great And Small, Wise And Foolish.
Wise
Nature
Men
What Is Life But The Angle Of Vision? A Man Is Measured By The Angle At Which He Looks At Objects.
Life
Men
Vision
There Are Many Things Of Which A Wise Man Might Wish To Be Ignorant
Wise
Wisdom
Ignorance
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
Truly Speaking, It Is Not Instruction, But Provocation, That I Can Receive From Another Soul. What He Announces, I Must Find True In Me, Or Reject; And On His Word, Or As His Second, Be He Who He May, I Can Accept Nothing.
Soul
May
Accepting
All Ages Of Belief Have Been Great; All Of Unbelief Have Been Mean.
Mean
Age
Belief
How Painful To Give A Gift To Any Person Of Sensibility, Or Of Equality! It Is Next Worst To Receiving One
Pain
Giving
Receiving
I Ought To Go Upright And Vital, And Speak The Rude Truth In All Ways.
Rude
Self Reliance
Way
The Less Government We Have The Better.
Government
Liberty
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
Every Man's Reason Is Sufficient For His Guidance, If Used.
Men
Guidance
Reason
The Etymologist Finds The Deadest Word To Have Been Once A Brilliant Picture. Language Is Fossil Poetry. As The Limestone Of The Continent Consists Of Infinite Masses Of The Shells Of Animalcules, So Language Is Made Up Of Images Or Tropes, Which Now, In Their Secondary Use, Have Long Ceased To Remind Us Of Their Poetic Origin.
Long
Use
Shells
The World Is A Divine Dream, From Which We May Presently Awake To The Glories And Certainties Of Day.
Dream
World
Divinity
Napoleon Said Of Massena, That He Was Not Himself Until The Battle Began To Go Against Him; Then, When The Dead Began To Fall In Ranks Around Him, Awoke His Powers Of Combination, And He Put On Terror And Victory As A Robe.
Fall
Adversity
Victory
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
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
The Democrat Is A Young Conservative; The Conservative Is An Old Democrat. The Aristocrat Is The Democrat Ripe, And Gone To Seed,--because Both Parties Stand On The One Ground Of The Supreme Value Of Property, Which One Endeavors To Get, And The Other To Keep.
Party
Gone
Politics
The First Thing A Great Person Does Is Make Us Realize The Insignificance Of Circumstance.
Life
Motivation
Doe
Do The Thing And You Will Have The Power. But They That Do Not The Thing, Had Not The Power.
Power
In Art, The Hand Can Never Execute Anything Higher Than The Heart Can Imagine.
Art
Hands
Imagine
O Friend, Never Strike Sail To A Fear! Come Into Port Greatly, Or Sail With God The Seas.
Sea
Port
Strikes
Herein Is The Explanation Of The Analogies, Which Exist In All The Arts. They Are The Re-appearance Of One Mind, Working In Many Materials To Many Temporary Ends. Raphael Paints Wisdom, Handel Sings It, Phidias Carves It, Shakspeare Writes It, Wren Builds It, Columbus Sails It, Luther Preaches It, Washington Arms It, Watt Mechanizes It. Painting Was Called "silent Poetry," And Poetry "speaking Painting." The Laws Of Each Art Are Convertible Into The Laws Of Every Other.
Art
Writing
Law
The World Exists For The Education Of Each Man.
Men
World
Man Is Priest, And Scholar, And Statesman, And Producer, And Soldier. In The Divided Or Social State These Functions Are Parcelled Out To Individuals, Each Of Whom Aims To Do His Stint Of The Joint Work, Whilst Each Other Performs His.
Men
Soldier
Joints
Is Not, Indeed, Every Man A Student, And Do Not All Things Exist For The Student's Behoof?
Men
Students
All Things
He That Rides His Hobby Gently Must Always Give Way To Him That Rides His Hobby Hard.
Commitment
Giving
Hobbies
Pride Ruined The Angels, Their Shame Them Restores; And The Joy That Is Sweetest Lurks In Stings Of Remorse.
Angel
Pride
Joy
In Our Fine Arts, Not Imitation, But Creation Is The Aim... The Details, The Prose Of Nature, He Should Omit, And Give Us Only The Spirit And Splendour.
Art
Creativity
Giving
Live In The Fields, And God Will Give You Lectures On Natural Philosophy Every Day.
Philosophy
Giving
Tree
The Roses Under My Window Make No Reference To Former Roses Or Better Ones; They Are What They Are; They Exist With God Today. There Is No Time To Them. There Is Simply The Rose; It Is Perfect In Every Moment Of Its Existence.
Time
Perfect
Rose
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?
Monday
Freedom
Sunday
Wit Makes Its Own Welcome, And Levels All Distinctions. No Dignity, No Learning, No Force Of Character, Can Make Any Stand Against Good Wit.
Character
Levels
Welcome
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
Go Face The Fire At Sea, Or The Cholera In Your Friend's House, Or The Burglar In Your Own, Or What Danger Lies In The Way Of Duty, Knowing You Are Guarded By The Cherubim Of Destiny. If You Believe In Fate To Your Harm, Believe It, At Least, For Your Good.
Friendship
Lying
Believe
If Thou Fill Thy Brain With Boston And New York, With Fashion And Covetousness, And Wilt Stimulate Thy Jaded Senses With Wine And French Coffee, Thou Shalt Find No Radiance Of Wisdom In The Lonely Waste Of The Pinewoods.
Fashion
Lonely
New York
The Poor Are Only They Who Feel Poor.
Poverty
Poor
Feels
The Finest Poems Of The World Have Been Expedients To Get Bread.
World
Bread
Finest
The Goitre Of Egotism Is So Frequent Among Notable Persons, That We Must Infer Some Strong Necessity In Nature Which It Subserves;such As We See In The Sexual Attraction.
Strong
Sex
Notable
Peace Has Its Victories, But It Takes Brave Men And Women To Win Them.
Courage
Peace
Men
A Man Makes Inferiors His Superiors By Heat; Self Control Is The Rule. Anger Is An Uncontrollable Feeling That Betrays What You Are When You Are Not Yourself. Anger Is That Powerful Internal Force That Blows Out The Light Of Reason. Know This To Be The Enemy: It Is Anger, Born Of Desire.
Powerful
Anger
Men
The Cardinal Virtue Of A Teacher [is] To Protect The Pupil From His Own Influence.
Teacher
Influence
Virtue
You Cannot Do A Kindness Too Soon, For You Never Know How Soon It Will Be Too Late.
Inspirational
Life
Motivational
There Is No Good Theory Of Disease Which Does Not At Once Suggest A Cure.
Doe
Disease
Cures
Each Of Us Sees In Others What We Carry In Our Own Hearts.
Heart
We Infer The Spirit Of The Nation In Great Measure From The Language, Which Is A Sort Of Monument, To Which Each Forcible Individual In A Course Of Many Hundred Years Has Contributed A Stone.
Years
Stones
Spirit
Wherever Work Is Done, Victory Is Attained.
Work
Victory
Done
[d]ivine Providence... Keeps The Universe Open In Every Direction To The Soul.
Soul
Providence
Universe
Action Is With The Scholar Subordinate, But It Is Essential. Without It, He Is Not Yet Man. Without It, Thought Can Never Ripen Into Truth.
Men
Essentials
Action
It Is Always So Pleasant To Be Generous, Though Very Vexatious To Pay Debts.
Generosity
Debt
Pay
Self-trust Is The First Secret Of Success.
Motivational
Success
Trust
The Times Are The Masquerade Of The Eternities; Trivial To The Dull, Tokens Of Noble And Majestic Agents To The Wise; The Receptacle In Which The Past Leaves Its History; The Quarry Out Of Which The Genius Of Today Is Building Up The Future.
Wise
Future
Past
There Comes A Time In Each Man's Education In Which He Comes To The Conclusion That Envy Is Ignorance, Imitation Is Suicide, And Society In In Conspiracy Against Each One Of Its Members.
Suicide
Ignorance
Men
Not A Ray Is Dimmed, Not An Atom Worn; Nature's Oldest Force Is As Good As New.
Nature
Rays
Atoms
If Thought Makes Free, So Does The Moral Sentiment. The Mixtures Of Spiritual Chemistry Refuse To Be Analyzed.
Spiritual
Doe
Mixtures
Men Are Better Than This Theology.
Men
Theology
Every Natural Action Is Graceful.
Action
Natural
As The Traveler Who Has Lost His Way, Throws His Reins On His Horse's Neck, And Trusts To The Instinct Of The Animal To Find His Road, So Must We Do With The Divine Animal Who Carries Us Through This World
Horse
Animal
Intuition
The Good Spirit Never Cared For The Colleges, And Though All Men And Boys Were Now Drilled In Greek, Latin, And Mathematics, It Had Quite Left These Shells High On The Beach, And Was Creating And Feeding Other Matters [science] At Other Ends Of The World.
Beach
Latin
Science
A Right Rule For A Club Would Be, Admit No Man Whose Presence Excludes Any One Topic. It Requires People Who Are Not Surprised Andshocked, Who Do And Let Do, And Let Be, Who Sink Trifles, And Know Solid Values, And Who Take A Great Deal For Granted.
Men
People
Would Be
Pictures Must Not Be Too Picturesque.
Art
Picturesque
A Wise Writer Will Feel That The Ends Of Study And Composition Are Best Answered By Announcing Undiscovered Regions Of Thought, And So Communicating, Through Hope, New Activity To The Torpid Spirit.
Wise
Spirit
Study
Think Me Not Unkind And Rude That I Walk Alone In Grove And Glen; I Go To The God Of The Wood To Fetch His Word To Men.
Men
Thinking
Rude
In Daily Life What Distinguishes The Master Is The Using Those Materials He Has, Instead Of Looking About For What Are More Renowned, Or What Others Have Used Well.
Daily Life
Individualism
Used
A Strenuous Soul Hates Cheap Success.
Success
Hate
Soul
A Man Is Not To Aim At Innocence, Any More Than He Is To Aim At Hair, But He Is To Keep It.
Truth
Honesty
Men
It Is Long Ere We Discover How Rich We Are. Our History, We Are Sure, Is Quite Tame: We Have Nothing To Write, Nothing To Infer. But Our Wiser Years Still Run Back To The Despised Recollections Of Childhood, And Always We Are Fishing Up Some Wonderful Article Out Of That Pond; Until, By And By, We Begin To Suspect That The Biography Of The One Foolish Person We Know Is, In Reality, Nothing Less Than The Miniature Paraphrase Of The Hundred Volumes Of The Universal History.
Running
Writing
Reality
The Religion Which Is To Guide And Fulfill The Present And Coming Ages, Whatever Else It Be, Must Be Intellectual. The Scientific Mind Must Have A Faith Which Is Science.
Faith
Intellectual
Mind
Nothing Is Quite Beautiful Alone; Nothing But Is Beautiful In The Whole. A Single Object Is Only So Far Beautiful As It Suggests This Universal Grace.
Beautiful
Grace
Universal
The Poet's Habit Of Living Should Be Set On A Key So Low That The Common Influences Should Delight Him.
Keys
Delight
Common
Successful Is The Person Who Has Lived Well, Laughed Often And Loved Much, Who Has Gained The Respect Of Children, Who Leaves The World Better Than They Found It, Who Has Never Lacked Appreciation For The Earth's Beauty, Who Never Fails To Look For The Best In Others Or Give The Best Of Themselves.
Appreciation
Children
Successful
There Is No Way To Success In Art But To Take Off Your Coat, Grind Paint, And Work Like A Digger On The Railroad, All Day And Every Day.
Art
Philosophy
Work
The Sea Is Masculine, The Type Of Active Strength. Look, What Egg-shells Are Drifting All Over It, Each One, Like Ours, Filled With Men In Ecstasies Of Terror, Alternating With Cockney Conceit, As The Sea Is Rough Or Smooth. Is This Sad-colored Circle An Eternal Cemetery?
Men
Sea
Circles
Every Sunset Brings The Promise Of A New Dawn
Sunset
New Day
Promise
I Like To Have A Person's Knowledge Comprehend More Than One Class Of Topics, One Row Of Shelves. I Like A Person Who Likes To See A Fine Barn As Well As A Good Tragedy.
Knowledge
Class
Tragedy
Each Work Of Art Excludes The World, Concentrates Attention On Itself. For The Time It Is The Only Thing Worth Doing -to Do Just That; Be It A Sonnet, A Statue, A Landscape, An Outline Head Of Caesar, Or An Oration. Presently We Return To The Sight Of Another That Globes Itself Into A Whole As Did The First, For Example, A Beautiful Garden; And Nothing Seems Worth Doing In Life But Laying Out A Garden.
Life
Beautiful
Art
Free Should Be The Scholar - Free And Brave.
Teaching
Brave
Should
The Crime Which Bankrupts Men And States Is Job-work-declining From Your Main Design, To Serve A Turn Here And There. Nothing Is Beneath You, If It Is In The Direction Of Your Life, Nothing Is Great Or Desirable If It Is Off From That. I Think We Are Entitled Here To Draw A Straight Line And Say That Society Can Never Prosper But Must Always Be Bankrupts, Until Every Man Does That Which He Was Created To Do.
Jobs
Men
Thinking
In Talking With Scholars, I Observe That They Lost On Ruder Companions Those Years Of Boyhood Which Alone Could Give Imaginative Literature A Religious And Infinite Quality In Their Esteem.
Religious
Talking
Years
Lose Yourself In Nature And Find Peace
Nature
Environment
Finding Peace
But There Is No End To The Praise Of Books, To The Value Of The Library. Who Shall Estimate Their Influence On Our Population Where All The Millions Read And Write ? It Is The Joy Of Nations That Man Can Communicate All His Thoughts, Discoveries And Virtues To Records That May Last For Centuries.
Book
Writing
Men
No Matter How You Seem To Fatten On A Crime, There Can Never Be Good For The Bee Which Is Bad For The Hive.
Compassion
Matter
Bees
That Which Befits Us, Embosomed In Beauty And Wonder As We Are, Is Cheerfulness, And Courage, And The Endeavor To Realize Our Aspirations. Shall Not The Heart Which Has Received So Much, Trust The Power By Which It Lives? May It Not Quit Other Leadings, And Listen To The Soul That Has Guided It So Gently, And Taught It So Much, Secure That The Future Will Be Worthy Of The Past?
Heart
Past
Soul
In Good Writing, Words Become One With Things.
Writing
Writing Words
Good Writing
Nature Never Hurries: Atom By Atom, Little By Little, She Achieves Her Work. The Lesson One Learns From Yachting Or Planting Is The Manners Of Nature; Patience With The Delays Of Wind And Sun, Delays Of The Seasons, Bad Weather, Excess Or Lack Of Water.
Nature
Wind
Weather
There Is One Topic Peremptorily Forbidden To All Well-bred, To All Rational Mortals, Namely, Their Distempers.
Complaining
Leprosy
Topics
I Dream Of A Better Tomorrow, Where Chickens Can Cross The Road And Not Be Questioned About Their Motives.
Motivational
Hilarious
Dream
The Wise Man In The Storm Prays God Not For Safety From Danger But For Deliverance From Fear. It Is The Storm Within Which Endangers Him[,] Not The Storm Without.
Inspirational
Life
Motivational
As There Is A Use In Medicine For Poisons, So The World Cannot Move Without Rogues.
Moving
Medicine
Criminals
What Is The Hardest Task In The World? To Think.
Thinking
World
Tasks
Man Is The Dwarf Of Himself.
Men
Dwarves
Mankind
The Difference Between Talent And Genius Is In The Direction Of The Current: In Genius, It Is From Within Outward; In Talent From Without Inward.
Differences
Inward
Genius
A Day For Toil, An Hour For Sport, But For A Friend Is Life Too Short.
Life
Friendship
Sports
Give Me Health And A Day, And I Will Make The Pomp Of Emperors Ridiculous.
Inspiration
Giving
Ridiculous
Be Sure Then To Read No Mean Books. Shun The Spawn Of The Press On The Gossip Of The Hour. Do Not Read What You Shall Learn, Without Asking, In The Street And The Train.
Book
Reading
Mean
Let The Words Be Gazetted And Ridiculous Henceforward.
Ridiculous
Every Sweet Has Its Sour; Every Evil Its Good.
Sweet
Evil
Wickedness
Earth Endures; Stars Abide.
Stars
Earth
Endure
There Is No Architect Can Build As The Muse Can; She Is Skilful To Select Materials For Her Plan.
Inspirational
Art
Muse
I Know Of No Such Unquestionable Badge And Ensign Of A Sovereign Mind As That Of Tenacity Of Purpose.
Mind
Purpose
Sovereign
Observe How Every Truth And Every Error, Each A Thought Of Someone's Mind, Clothes Itself With Societies, Houses, Cities, Language, Ceremonies, Newspapers
Errors
Cities
Clothes
The Finished Man Of The World Must Eat Of Every Apple At Once. He Must Hold His Hatreds Also At Arm's Length, And Not Remember Spite. He Has Neither Friends Nor Enemies, But Values Men Only As Channels Of Power.
Hate
Men
Apples
The Whole Value Of The Dime Is In Knowing What To Do With It.
Money
Knowing
Dimes
The Truth, The Hope, Of Any Time Must Be Sought In The Minorities. Michael Angelo Was The Conscience Of Italy. We Grow Free With His Name, And Find It Ornamental Now, But In His Own Day His Friends Were Few.
Names
Minorities
Popularity
The First In Time And The First In Importance Of The Influences Upon The Mind Is That Of Nature. Every Day, The Sun; And After Sunset, Night And Her Stars. Ever The Winds Blow; Ever The Grass Grows.
Education
Nature
Stars
All History Is The Decline Of War, Though The Slow Decline. All That Society Has Yet Gained Is Mitigation; The Doctrine Of The Right Of War Still Remains.
War
Doctrine
Decline
A More Secret, Sweet, And Overpowering Beauty Appears To Man When His Heart And Mind Open To The Sentiment Of Virtue. Then He Is Instructed In What Is Set Above Him. He Learns That His Being Is Without Bound; That To The Good, To The Perfect, He Is Born, Low As He Now Lies In Evil And Weakness.
Sweet
Lying
Heart
Nothing Great Was Ever Achieved Without Enthusiasm.
Inspirational
Life
Motivational
What Opium Is Instilled Into All Disaster? It Shows Formidable As We Approach It, But There Is At Last No Rough Rasping Friction,but The Most Slippery Sliding Surfaces. We Fall Soft On A Thought.
Pain
Fall
Suffering
The Amount Of A Man's Wealth Consists In The Number Of Things He Can Do Without.
Men
Numbers
Wealth
We Do Not Know Today Whether We Are Busy Or Idle. In Times When We Thought Ourselves Indolent, We Have Afterwards Discovered That Much Was Accomplished, And Much Was Begun In Us.
Inspirational
Self Improvement
Today
Spurious Prudence, Making The Senses Final, Is The God Of Sots And Cowards, And Is The Subject Of All Comedy. It Is Nature's Joke, And Therefore Literature's. True Prudence Limits This Sensualism By Admitting The Knowledge Of An Internal And Real World.
Real
Coward
Finals
The Religion That Is Afraid Of Science Dishonors God And Commits Suicide.
Suicide
Religion
Spirituality
I Am Not Much An Advocate For Traveling, And I Observe That Men Run Away To Other Countries Because They Are Not Good In Their Own, And Run Back To Their Own Because They Pass For Nothing In The New Places. For The Most Part, Only The Light Characters Travel. Who Are You That Have No Task To Keep You At Home?
Running
Country
Travel
To Be A Star, You Must Shine Your Own Light, Follow Your Path, And Don't Worry About The Darkness, For That Is When The Stars Shine Brightest. Always Do What You Are Afraid To Do.
Inspirational
Stars
Fear
The Judge Weighs The Arguments And Puts A Brave Face On The Matter, And Since There Must Be A Decision, Decides As He Can, And Hopes He Has Done Justice And Given Satisfaction To The Community
Brave Face
Justice
Judging
Money Is Of No Value; It Cannot Spend Itself. All Depends On The Skill Of The Spender.
Money
Skills
Depends
The Most Indian Thing About The Indian Is Surely Not His Moccasins Or His Calumet, His Wampum Or His Stone Hatched, But Traits Of Character And Sagacity, Skill, Or Passion.
Passion
Native American
Character
The Torments Of Martyrdom Are Probably Most Keenly Felt By The Bystanders.
Bystanders
Martyr
Torment
The Artists Must Be Sacrificed To Their Art. Like The Bees, They Must Put Their Lives Into The Sting They Give.
Life
Art
History
Every Mind Must Make Its Choice Between Truth And Repose. It Cannot Have Both.
Truth
Choices
Mind
The Spirit Of The World, The Great Calm Presence Of The Creator, Comes Not Forth To The Sorceries Of Opium Or Of Wine.
Wine
Sorcery
World
Do Not Believe That Possibly You Can Escape The Reward Of Your Action.
Believe
Justice
Rewards
Some Men's Words I Remember So Well That I Must Often Use Them To Express My Thought. Yes, Because I Perceive That We Have Heard The Same Truth, But They Have Heard It Better.
Men
Use
Remember
Unhappily, No Man Exists Who Has Not In His Own Person Become, To Some Amount, A Stockholder In The Sin, And So Made Himself Liable To A Share In The Expiation.
Responsibility
Men
Sin
I See My Trees Repair Their Boughs.
Tree
The Frost Which Kills The Harvest Of A Year Saves The Harvest Of A Century, By Destroying The Weevil Or The Locust.
Years
Frost
Harvest
The Life Of Man Is The True Romance, Which When It Is Valiantly Conduced, Will Yield The Imagination A Higher Joy Than Any Fiction.
Life
Men
Yield
Infancy Conforms To Nobody; All Conform To It.
Art
Philosophy
History
If There Be Any Man Who Thinks The Ruin Of A Race Of Men A Small Matter, Compared With The Last Decoration And Completions Of Hisown Comfort,--who Would Not So Much As Part With His Ice- Cream, To Save Them From Rapine And Manacles, I Think I Must Not Hesitate To Satisfy That Man That Also His Cream And Vanilla Are Safer And Cheaper By Placing The Negro Nation On A Fair Footing Than By Robbing Them.
Men
Thinking
Ice Cream
The Spirit Only Can Teach. Not Any Profane Man, Not Any Sensual, Not Any Liar, Not Any Slave Can Teach, But Only He Can Give, Whohas; He Only Can Create, Who Is. The Man On Whom The Soul Descends, Through Whom The Soul Speaks, Alone Can Teach. Courage, Piety, Love, Wisdom, Can Teach; And Every Man Can Open His Door To These Angels, And They Shall Bring Him The Gift Of Tongues. But The Man Who Aims To Speak As Books Enable, As Synods Use, As The Fashion Guides, And As Interest Commands, Babbles. Let Him Hush.
Education
Fashion
Liars
...man Is An Analogist, And Studies Relations In All Objects. He Is Placed In The Center Of Beings, And A Ray Of Relation Passes From Every Other Being To Him. And Neither Can Man Be Understood Without These Objects, Nor These Objects Without Man.
Men
Unity
Rays
In Our Mechanics' Fair, There Must Be Not Only Bridges, Ploughs, Carpenter's Planes, And Baking Troughs, But Also Some Few Finer Instruments,--rain-gauges, Thermometers, And Telescopes; And In Society, Besides Farmers, Sailors, And Weavers, There Must Be A Few Persons Of Purer Fire Kept Specially As Gauges And Meters Of Character; Persons Of A Fine, Detecting Instinct, Who Note The Smallest Accumulations Of Wit And Feeling In The Bystander.
Rain
Character
Bridges
The Great Majority Of Men Are Bundles Of Beginnings
Perseverance
Teacher
Appreciation
There Is No One Who Does Not Exaggerate. In Conversation, Men Are Encumbered With Personality, And Talk Too Much.
Men
Exaggeration Is
Personality
All Loss, All Pain, Is Particular; The Universe Remains To The Heart Unhurt.
Pain
Heart
Loss
The Masters Painted For Joy, And Knew Not That Virtue Had Gone Out Of Them. They Could Not Paint The Like In Cold Blood. The Masters Of English Lyric Wrote Their Songs So. It Was A Fine Efflorescence Of Fine Powers.
Song
Blood
Joy
Let Us Not Look East And West For Materials Of Conversation, But Rest In Presence And Unity. A Just Feeling Will Fast Enough Supply Fuel For Discourse, If Speaking Be More Grateful Than Silence. When People Come To See Us, We Foolishly Prattle, Lest We Be Inhospitable. But Things Said For Conversation Are Chalk Eggs. 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.
Grateful
Eggs
People
Every Revolution Was First A Thought In One Man's Mind.
Thinking
Men
Mind
The Highest Revelation Is That God Is In Every Man.
Men
Revelations
Every Man
The Good Writer Seems To Be Writing About Himself, But Has His Eye Always On That Thread Of The Universe Which Runs Through Himself And All Things.
Running
Writing
Eye
The Eye Obeys Exactly The Action Of The Mind.
Eye
Sight
Mind
There Is A Capacity Of Virtue In Us, And There Is A Capacity Of Vice To Make Your Blood Creep.
Blood
Vices
Virtue
I Knew A Witty Physician Who Found Theology In The Biliary Duct, And Used To Affirm That If There Was A Disease In The Liver, The Man Became A Calvinist, And If That Organ Was Sound, He Became A Unitarian.
Witty
Men
Disease
To Me, However, The Question Of The Times Resolved Itself Into A Practical Question Of The Conduct Of Life. How Shall I Live? We Are Incompetent To Solve The Times. Our Geometry Cannot Span The Huge Orbits Of The Prevailing Ideas, Behold Their Return, And Reconcile Their Opposition. We Can Only Obey Our Own Polarity.
Life
Ideas
Orbit
"do Not Call Yourself An "artist-photographer" And Make "artist-painters" And "artist-sculptors" Laugh; Call Yourself A Photographer And Wait For Artists To Call You Brother."
Photography
Brother
Artist
The New Statement Will Comprise The Skepticisms, As Well As The Faiths Of Society, And Out Of Unbeliefs A Creed Shall Be Formed. For, Skepticisms Are Not Gratuitous Or Lawless, But Are Limitations Of The Affirmative Statement, And The New Philosophy Must Take Them In, And Make Affirmations Outside Of Them, Just As Much As Must Include The Oldest Beliefs.
Philosophy
Philosophical
Belief
Consistency Is The Bugbear That Frightens Little Minds.
Consistency
Mind
Littles
The Virtues Of Society Are Vices Of The Saint. The Terror Of Reform Is The Discovery That We Must Cast Away Our Virtues, Or What We Have Always Esteemed Such, Into The Same Pit That Has Consumed Our Grosser Vices.
Discovery
Vices
Reform
The Gift, To Be True, Must Be The Flowing Of The Giver Unto Me, Correspondent To My Flowing Unto Him.
Giver
Being True
The Imaginative Faculty Of The Soul Must Be Fed With Objects Immense And Eternal.
Soul
Feds
Faculty
There Are Two Classes Of Poets - The Poets By Education And Practice, These We Respect; And Poets By Nature, These We Love.
Love
Respect
Nature
We May Climb Into The Thin And Cold Realm Of Pure Geometry And Lifeless Science, Or Sink Into That Of Sensation. Between These Extremes Is The Equator Of Life, Of Thought, Or Spirit, Or Poetry,--a Narrow Belt.
Science
Poetry
May
The Soul Of God Is Poured Into The World Through The Thoughts Of Men.
God
Men
Thinking
A Cultivated Man, Wise To Know And Bold To Perform, Is The End To Which Nature Works.
Wise
Men
Ends
All Infractions Of Love And Equity In Our Social Relations Are Speedily Punished-by Fear...be Honest With A Man And You Have No Fear. Try To Deceive And The Relationship Deteriorates.
Men
Trying
Action
The Element Running Through Entire Nature, Which We Popularly Call Fate, Is Known To Us As Limitation. Whatever Limits Us, We Callfate.
Running
Fate
Elements
We Are Of Different Opinions At Different Hours, But We Always May Be Said To Be At Heart On The Side Of Truth.
Heart
Different Opinions
May
Every Man Alone Is Sincere. At The Entrance Of A Second Person, Hypocrisy Begins. We Parry And Fend The Approach Of Our Fellow-man By Compliments, By Gossip, By Amusements, By Affairs. We Cover Up Our Thought From Him Under A Hundred Folds.
Men
Gossip
Hypocrisy
The Whole Constitution Of Property On Its Present Tenures, Is Injurious, And Its Influence On Persons Deteriorating And Degrading.
Constitution
Influence
Degrading
The First Questions Are Always To Be Asked, And The Wisest Doctor Is Gravelled By The Inquisitiveness Of A Child.
Wisdom
Children
Doctors
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