Background Image
...
To Eat Bread Is One Thing; To Love The Precepts Of Christ And Resolve To Obey Them Is Quite Another.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
...
Please Wait....
Translating....

To Eat Bread Is

Ralph Waldo Emerson
...
To Eat Bread Is One Thing; To Love The Precepts Of Christ And Resolve To Obey Them Is Quite Another.

Understanding the Quote: "to eat bread is one thing; to love the precepts of christ..."

This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson reflects deeply on the theme of bread. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Bread, Christ, Communion, 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 bread and christ. 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: 7863
Topic
Bread
Christ
Communion
More From Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every Rational Creature Has All Nature For His Dowry And Estate. It Is His, If He Will. He May Divest Himself Of It; He May Creepinto A Corner, And Abdicate His Kingdom, As Most Men Do, But He Is Entitled To The World By His Constitution.
Nature
Men
Humanity
Let Us Be Poised, Wise And Our Own Today.
Wise
Life And Love
Today
O Friend, Never Strike Sail To A Fear! Come Into Port Greatly, Or Sail With God The Seas.
Sea
Port
Strikes
It Must Be That When God Speaketh, He Should Communicate, Not One Thing, But All Things; Should Fill The World With His Voice; Should Scatter Forth Light, Nature, Time, Souls, From The Centre Of The Present Thought; And New Date And New Create The Whole.whenever A Mind Is Simple And Receives A Divine Wisdom, Old Things Pass Away, - Means, Teachers, Texts, Temples Fall; It Lives Now, And Absorbs Past And Future Into The Present Hour. All Things Are Made Sacred By Relation To It,-one As Much As Another. All Things Are Disolved To Ther Center By Thier Cause.
Teacher
Fall
Mean
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
Nature Will Not Be Buddhist: She Resents Generalizing, And Insults The Philosopher In Every Moment With A Million Fresh Particulars.
Nature
Buddhist
Philosopher
Society Has No Bribe For Me.
Bribe
A Man Is The Whole Encyclopedia Of Facts.
Men
Acorns
Facts
The Jews Believed Jerusalem To Be The Centre. I Have Seen A Kratometric Chart Designed To Show That The City Of Philadelphia Was In The Same Thermic Belt, And, By Inference, In The Same Belt Of Empire, As The Cities Of Athens, Rome, And London. It Was Drawn By A Patriotic Philadelphian, And Was Examined With Pleasure, Under His Showing, By The Inhabitants Of Chestnut Street. But, When Carried To Charleston, To New Orleans, And To Boston, It Somehow Failed To Convince The Ingenious Scholars Of All Those Capitals.
Patriotic
Boston
Cities
Far Off, Men Swell, Bully, And Threaten; Bring Them Hand To Hand, And They Are Feeble Folk.
Bullying
Men
Hands
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
Every Man's Task [his 'great Dream' And Impassioned Life-goal] Is His Life Preserver.
Dream
Men
Goal
There The Great Planter Plants Of Fruitful Worlds The Grain, And With A Million Spells Enchants The Souls That Walk In Pain.
Pain
Soul
World
The Counting-room Maxims Liberally Expounded Are Laws Of The Universe. The Merchant's Economy Is A Coarse Symbol Of The Soul's Economy. It Is, To Spend For Power, And Not For Pleasure.
Money
Law
Soul
One Man Pins Me To The Wall, While With Another I Walk Among The Stars
Sympathy
Stars
Wall
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
Nature Is A Rag Merchant, Who Works Up Every Shred And Ort And End Into New Creations.
Rags
Creation
Ends
The Possibility Of Interpretation Lies In The Identity Of The Observer With The Observed. Each Material Thing Has Its Celestial Side; Has Its Translation, Through Humanity, Into The Spiritual And Necessary Sphere, Where It Plays A Part As Indestructible As Any Other.
Spiritual
Lying
Play
The Powers Of The Soul Are Commensurate With Its Needs.
Soul
Needs
Converse With A Mind That Is Grandly Simple, And Literature Looks Like Word-catching.
Simple
Simplicity
Mind
The Sanity Of Society Is A Balance Of A Thousand Insanity's.
Insanity
Balance
Psychological
All History Is Biography.
Biographies
As Long As Civilization Is Essentially One Of Property, Of Fences, Of Exclusiveness, It Will Be Mocked By Delusions. Our Riches Will Leave Us Sick; There Will Be Bitterness In Our Laughter, And Our Wine Will Burn Our Mouth. Only That Good Profits Which We Can Taste With All Doors Open, And Which Serves All Men.
Laughter
Wine
Men
Let Us Draw A Lesson From Nature, Which Always Works By Short Ways. When The Fruit Is Ripe, It Falls.
Fall
Way
Fruit
I Will Not Hide My Tastes Or Aversions. If You Are True, But Not In The Same Truth With Me, Cleave To Your Companions; I Will Seek My Own.
Aversion
Taste
Companion
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
Draw, If Thou Canst, The Mystic Line, Severing Rightly His From Thine, Which Is Human, Which Divine.
Religion
Lines
Divine
O Friend, Never Strike Sail To A Fear!
Fear
Hero
Strikes
Every Man Is Actually Weak, And Apparently Strong. To Himself, He Seems Weak; To Others, Formidable.
Strength
Strong
Men
In Politics And In Trade, Bruisers And Pirates Are Of Better Promise Than Talkers And Clerks.
Pirate
Promise
Clerks
Sympathy Is A Supporting Atmosphere, And In It We Unfold Easily And Well.
Sympathy
Atmosphere
Wells
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
The Artists Must Be Sacrificed To Their Art. Like The Bees, They Must Put Their Lives Into The Sting They Give.
Life
Art
History
There Never Was A Strong Character That Was Not Made Strong By Discipline Of The Will; There Never Was A Strong People That Did Not Rank Subordination And Discipline Among The Signal Virtues. Subjection To Moods Is The Mark Of A Deteriorating Morality. There Is No Baser Servitude Than That Of The Man Whose Caprices Are His Masters, And A Nation Composed Of Such Men Could Not Long Preserve Its Liberties.
Strong
Character
Men
Always The Seer Is A Sayer. Somehow His Dream Is Told; Somehow He Publishes It With Solemn Joy: Sometimes With Pencil On Canvas, Sometimes With Chisel On Stone, Sometimes In Towers And Aisles Of Granite, His Soul's Worship Is Builded; Sometimes In Anthems Of Indefinite Music, But Clearest And Most Permanent, In Words.
Dream
Joy
Soul
People Destined To Meet Will Do So, Apparently By Chance, At Precisely The Right Moment.
People
Chance
Moments
A Certain Awkwardness Marks The Use Of Borrowed Thoughts; But As Soon As We Have Learned What To Do With Them, They Become Our Own.
Learning
Use
Mark
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 Sentence Must Also Contain Its Own Apology For Being Spoken.
Apology
Sentences
Life Is A Search After Power; And This Is An Element With Which The World Is So Saturated,-there Is No Chink Or Crevice In Which It Is Not Lodged,-that No Honest Seeking Goes Unrewarded.
Power
Elements
World
The Use Of Natural History Is To Give Us Aid In Supernatural History: The Use Of The Outer Creation, To Give Us Language For The Beings And Changes Of The Inward Creation.
Change
Nature
History
It Is Easy To Live For Others, Everybody Does. I Call On You To Live For Yourself.
Inspirational
Integrity
Self Esteem
He Who Is Not Everyday Conquering Some Fear Has Not Learned The Secret Of Life.
Inspirational
Life
Fear
We Can Only Be Valued As We Make Ourselves Valuable.
Life
Valuable
The Art Of Sculpture Is Long Ago Perished To Any Real Effect... It Is The Game Of A Rude And Youthful People, And Not The Manly Labour Of A Wise And Spiritual Nation.
Wise
Spiritual
Art
If We Will Take The Good We Find, Asking No Questions, We Shall Have Heaping Measures. The Great Gifts Are Not Got By Analysis. Everything Good Is On The Highway. The Middle Region Of Our Being Is The Temperate Zone.
Contentment
Analysis
Asking
Nothing Will Supply The Want Of Sunshine To Peaches, And, To Make Knowledge Valuable, You Must Have The Cheerfulness Of Wisdom. Whenever You Are Sincerely Pleased You Are Nourished. The Joy Of The Spirit Indicates Its Strength. All Healthy, Things Are Sweet-tempered. Genius Works In Sport, And Goodness Smiles To The Last.
Sports
Sweet
Sunshine
The Order Of Things Consents To Virtue.
Order
Virtue
Consent
It Is Commonly Observed That A Sudden Wealth, Like A Prize Drawn In A Lottery Or A Large Bequest To A Poor Family, Does Not Permanently Enrich. They Have Served No Apprenticeship To Wealth, And With The Rapid Wealth Come Rapid Claims Which They Do Not Know How To Deny, And The Treasure Is Quickly Dissipated.
Wisdom
Knowledge
Men
Life Is A Perpetual Instruction In Cause And Effect.
Life
Leadership
Causes
We Grizzle Every Day. I See No Need Of It. Whilst We Converse With What Is Above Us, We Do Not Grow Old, But Grow Young.
Age
Needs
Young
Knowledge Is The Antidote To Fear. [especially As Fear Often Stands For False Evidence Appearing Real!]
Real
Anticipation
Evidence
Among The Map Makers Of Each Generation Are The Risk Takers, Those Who See The Opportunities, Seize The Moment And Expand Man's Vision Of The Future
Opportunity
Men
Visions Of The Future
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
Accept Your Genius And Say What You Think.
Inspirational
Acceptance
Thinking
Every Sweet Has Its Sour; Every Evil Its Good.
Sweet
Evil
Wickedness
What Is The Foundation Of That Interest All Men Feel In Greek History, Letters, Art, And Poetry, In All Its Periods, From The Heroic Or Homeric Age Down To The Domestic Life Of The Athenians And Spartans, Four Or Five Centuries Later? What But This, That Every Man Passes Personally Through A Grecian Period.
Art
Men
Greek
The Statue Is Then Beautiful When It Begins To Be Incomprehensible, When It Is Passing Out Of Criticism, And Can No Longer Be Defined By Compass And Measuring-wand, But Demands An Active Imagination To Go With It, And To Say What It Is In The Act Of Doing.
Beautiful
Imagination
Criticism
Tis The Old Secret Of The Gods That They Come In Low Disguises.
God
Secret
Lows
Our Opinions Of The World, Are Confessions Of Character.
Character
World
Opinion
The Whole Constitution Of Property On Its Present Tenures, Is Injurious, And Its Influence On Persons Deteriorating And Degrading.
Constitution
Influence
Degrading
Manners Are The Happy Ways Of Doing Things; Each One A Stroke Of Genius Or Of Love, Now Repeated And Hardened Into Usage, They Form At Last A Rich Varnish, With Which The Routine Of Life Is Washed, And Its Details Adorned. If They Are Superficial, So Are The Dew-drops Which Give Such A Depth To The Morning Meadows.
Morning
Giving
Lasts
If You Want To Be Great And Successful, Choose People Who Are Great And Successful And Walk Side By Side With Them.
Leadership
Successful
People
To The Young Mind Every Thing Is Individual, Stands By Itself. By And By, It Finds How To Join Two Things And See In Them One Nature; Then Three, Then Three Thousand; And So, Tyrannized Over By Its Own Unifying Instinct, It Goes On Tying Things Together, Diminishing Anomalies, Discovering Roots Running Under Ground Whereby Contrary And Remote Things Cohere And Flower Out From One Stem.
Running
Flower
Thinking
He Only Is A Well-made Man Who Has A Good Determination. And The End Of Culture Is Not To Destroy This, God Forbid! But To Train Away All Impediment And Mixture And Leave Nothing But Pure Power.
Determination
Power
Men
A Man Is Known By The Books He Reads, By The Company He Keeps, By The Praise He Gives, By His Dress, By His Tastes, By His Distastes, By The Stories He Tells, By His Gait, By The Notion Of His Eye, By The Look Of His House, Of His Chamber; For Nothing On Earth Is Solitary But Every Thing Hath Affinities Infinite.
Book
Eye
Men
Each Moment Of The Year Has Its Own Beauty.
Years
Moments
Nature Beauty
Trust Thyself: Every Heart Vibrates To That Iron String. Accept The Place The Divine Providence Has Found For You, The Society Of Your Contemporaries, The Connection Of Events. Great Men Have Always Done So, And Confided Themselves Childlike To The Genius Of Their Age, Betraying Their Perception That The Absolutely Trustworthy Was Seated At Their Heart, Working Through Their Hands, Predominating In All Their Being.
Heart
Men
Hands
For, Though The Origin Of Most Of Our Words Is Forgotten, Each Word Was At First A Stroke Of Genius, And Obtained Currency, Because For The Moment It Symbolized The World To The First Speaker And To The Hearer. The Etymologist Finds The Deadest Word To Have Been Once A Brilliant Picture.
Our Words
Genius
World
Shall I Tell You The Secret Of The True Scholar? It Is This: Every Man I Meet Is My Master In Some Point, And In That I Learn Of Him.
Motivational
Learning
Men
Let None Presume To Measure The Irregularities Of Michael Angelo Or Socrates By Village Scales.
Art
Philosophy
History
The Book Of Nature Is The Book Of Fate. She Turns The Gigantic Pages, Leaf After Leaf Never Returning One.
Book
Fate
Destiny
When I First Open My Eyes Upon The Morning Meadows And Look Out Upon The Beautiful World, I Thank God I Am Alive.
Good Morning
Beautiful
Eye
The Reason Why Any One Refuses His Assent To Your Opinion, Or His Aid To Your Benevolent Design, Is In You: He Refuses To Accept You As A Bringer Of Truth, Because, Though You Think You Have It, He Feels That You Have It Not. You Have Not Given Him The Authentic Sign.
Truth
Thinking
Design
Nature Suffers Nothing To Remain In Her Kingdom Which Cannot Help Itself.
Self Reliance
Suffering
Kingdoms
Shall We Then Judge A Country By The Majority, Or By The Minority? By The Minority, Surely.
Country
Pride
Gay
For The Most Part, Only The Light Characters Travel. Who Are You That Have No Task To Keep You At Home?
Travel
Home
Character
I Wish That Friendship Should Have Feet, As Well As Eyes And Eloquence. It Must Plant Itself On The Ground, Before It Vaults Overthe Moon. I Wish It To Be A Little Of A Citizen, Before It Is Quite A Cherub.
Friendship
Eye
Moon
Under Every Deep A Lower Deep Opens.
Very Deep
The Moral Sense Reappears Today With The Same Morning Newness That Has Been From Of Old The Fountain Of Beauty And Strength. You Say There Is No Religion Now. 'tis Like Saying In Rainy Weather, There Is No Sun, When At That Moment We Are Witnessing One Of Its Superlative Effects.
Religious
Morning
Weather
Human Society Is Made Up Of Partialities. Each Citizen Has An Interest And A View Of His Own, Which, If Followed Out To The Extreme, Would Leave No Room For Any Other Citizen.
Views
Society
Citizens
Repose And Cheerfulness Are The Badge Of The Gentleman - Repose In Energy. The Greek Battle Pieces Are Calm; The Heroes, In Whatever Violent Actions Engaged, Retain A Serene Aspect.
Hero
Greek
Gentleman
Many Of The Historical Proverbs Have A Doubtful Paternity.
Historical
Doubtful
I Do Not Know What Arguments Mean In Reference To Any Expression Of A Thought. I Delight In Telling What I Think; But If You Ask Me How I Dare Say So, Or Why It Is So, I Am The Most Helpless Of Men.
Mean
Men
Thinking
If Men Would Avoid That General Language And General Manner In Which They Strive To Hide All That Is Peculiar, And Would Say Only What Was Uppermost In Their Own Minds, After Their Own Individual Manner, Every Man Would Be Interesting.
Truth
Honesty
Men
The New Statement Is Always Hated By The Old, And, To Those Dwelling In The Old, Comes Like An Abyss Of Skepticism.
Hate
Dwelling
Innovation
Taking To Pieces Is The Trade Of Those Who Cannot Construct.
Criticism
Pieces
Trade
Good And Bad Are But Names Very Readily Transferable To That Or This.
Names
Self Reliance
Good And Bad
The Only Prudence In Life Is Concentration.
Life
Focus And Concentration
Prudence
People Do Not Deserve To Have Good Writing, They Are So Pleased With Bad.
Funny
Sarcastic
Writing
Neither Is A Dictionary A Bad Book To Read. There Is No Can't In It, No Excess Of Explanation, And It Is Full Of Suggestion, The Raw Material Of Possible Poems And Histories.
Book
Reading
Suggestions
I Believe That Our Own Experience Instructs Us That The Secret Of Education Lies In Respecting The Pupil.
Lying
Believe
Secret
But If A Man Would Be Alone, Let Him Look At The Stars. The Rays That Come From Those Heavenly Worlds, Will Separate Between Him And Vulgar Things.
Stars
Men
Rays
The Sun Is The Sole Inconsumable Fireand God Is The Sole Inexhaustible Giver.
Sun
Sole
Giver
There Are Geniuses In Trade As Well As In War, Or The State, Or Letters; And The Reason Why This Or That Man Is Fortunate Is Not To Be Told. It Lies In The Man: That Is All Anybody Can Tell You About It.
War
Lying
Men
Democracy Is Morose, And Runs To Anarchy.
Running
Historical
Democracy
The World Looks Like A Multiplication-table, Or A Mathematical Equation, Which, Turn It How You Will, Balances Itself.
Mathematical Equations
Balance
Looks
This Book Of Montaigne The World Has Endorsed By Translating It Into All Tongues.
Book
World
Tongue
Good Poetry Could Not Have Been Otherwise Written Than It Is. The First Time You Hear It, It Sounds Rather As If Copied Out Of Some Invisible Tablet In The Eternal Mind Than As If Arbitrarily Composed By The Poet.
Poetry
Mind
Sound
There Is A Persuasion In The Soul Of Man That He Is Here For Cause, That He Was Put Down In This Place By The Creator To Do The Work For Which He Inspires Him, That Thus He Is An Overmatch For All Antagonists That Could Combine Against Him.
God
Courage
Men
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
Though Thou Loved Her As Thyself, As A Self Of Purer Clay, Tho' Her Parting Dims The Day, Stealing Grace From All Alive, Heartily Know, When Half-gods Go, The Gods Arrive.
God
Self
Grace
Cause And Effect, Means And Ends, Seed And Fruit Cannot Be Severed; For The Effect Already Blooms In The Cause, The End Preexists In The Means, The Fruit In The Seed
Mean
Fruit
Causes
The Problem Of Restoring To The World Original And Eternal Beauty Is Solved By Redemption Of The Soul.
Soul
Redemption
World
A Sublime Hope Cheers Ever The Faithful Heart, That Elsewhere, In Other Regions Of The Universal Powers, Souls Are Now Acting, Enduring And Daring, Which Can Love Us, And Which We Can Love.
Cheer
Heart
Soul
Each Man Has An Aptitude Born With Him. Do Your Work.
Work
Men
Aptitude
Out From The Heart Of Nature Rolled The Burdens Of The Bible Old.
Nature
Heart
Burden
Let It Suffice That In The Light Of These Two Facts, Namely, That The Mind Is One, And That Nature Is Its Correlative, History Isto Be Read And Written.
Light
Two
History
Cultivate An Attitude Of Gratitude, Of Giving And Forgiving. Nothing Can Bring You Peace But Yourself.
Thank You
Gratitude
Peace
All That Adam Had, All That Caesar Could, You Have And Can Do.... Build, Therefore, Your Own World.
Confidence
Greatness
World
Nothing Great Ever Happened Without Enthusiasm.
Life
Motivational
Enthusiasm
I Think The Vice Of Our Housekeeping Is That It Does Not Hold Man Sacred. The Vice Of Government, The Vice Of Education, The Viceof Religion, Is One With That Of The Private Life.
Men
Thinking
Vices
We Walk Alone In The World.
Solitude
World
Walks
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
With Each Divine Impulse The Mind Rends The Thin Rinds Of The Visible And Finite, And Comes Out Into Eternity, And Inspires And Expires Its Air. It Converses With Truths That Have Always Been Spoken In The World, And Becomes Conscious Of A Closer Sympathy With Zeno And Arrian, Than With Persons In The House.
Air
House
Inspire
Do Not Require A Description Of The Countries Towards Which You Sail. The Description Does Not Describe Them To You, And To- Morrow You Arrive There, And Know Them By Inhabiting Them.
Country
Travel
Doe
Every Action Has An Ancestor Of A Thought.
Action
Ancestor
A Painter Told Me That Nobody Could Draw A Tree Without In Some Sort Becoming A Tree; Or Draw A Child By Studying The Outlines Of Its Form Merely But By Watching For A Time His Motions And Plays, The Painter Enters Into His Nature And Can Then Draw Him At Every Attitude.
Inspirational
Children
Attitude
This Day Is All That Is Good And Fair. It Is Too Dear, With Its Hopes And Invitations, To Waste A Moment On The Yesterdays.
Positive
Uplifting
Time
Wherever There Is Failure, There Is Some Giddiness, Some Superstition About Luck, Some Step Omitted, Which, Nature Never Pardons.
Failure
Luck
Superstitions
The Regular Course Of Studies, The Years Of Academical And Professional Education, Have Not Yielded Me Better Facts Than Some Idle Books Under The Bench At The Latin School.
Latin
Book
School
I Have Only One Doctrine, The Infinitude Of The Private Man.
Men
Doctrine
The Sun Shines Today Also.
Shining
Today
Sun
Sleep Takes Off The Costume Of Circumstance, Arms Us With Terrible Freedom, So That Every Will Rushes To A Deed.
Sleep
Costumes
Deeds
The Solar System Has No Anxiety About Its Reputation.
Anxiety
Reputation
Solar System
I Unsettle All Things.
All Things
The City Is Recruited From The Country.
Country
Cities
How Many Attractions For Us Have Our Passing Fellows In The Streets, Both Male And Female, Which Our Ethics Forbid Us To Express, Which Yet Infuse So Much Pleasure Into Life. A Lovely Child, A Handsome Youth, A Beautiful Girl, A Heroic Man, A Maternal Woman, A Venerable Old Man, Charm Us, Though Strangers, And We Cannot Say So, Or Look At Them But For A Moment.
Beautiful
Girl
Children
A Beautiful Behavior Is Better Than A Beautiful Form; It Gives A Higher Pleasure Than Statues Or Pictures; It Is The Finest Of Fine Arts.
Beauty
Beautiful
Art
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
If I Could Put My Hand On The North Star, Would It Be As Beautiful? The Sea Is Lovely, But When We Bathe In It The Beauty Forsakesall The Near Water. For The Imagination And Senses Cannot Be Gratified At The Same Time.
Beautiful
Stars
Hands
Our Distrust Is Very Expensive.
Trust
Ethics
Expensive
In Skating Over Thin Ice Our Safety Is In Our Speed.
Inspirational
Fear
Failure
Only So Much Of Life Do I Know As I Have Lived.
Knows
Ethics And Religion Differ Herein; That The One Is The System Of Human Duties Commencing From Man; The Other, From God. Religion Includes The Personality Of God; Ethics Does Not.
Men
Personality
Religion
Our Day Of Dependence, Our Long Apprenticeship To The Learning Of Other Lands, Draws To A Close. The Millions, That Around Us Arerushing Into Life, Cannot Always Be Fed On The Sere Remains Of Foreign Harvests.
Land
Long
Independence
Other World? There Is No Other World; Here Or Nowhere Is The Whole Fact.
Other Worlds
Atheism
Facts
In My Utter Impotence To Test The Authenticity Of The Report Of My Senses, To Know Whether The Impressions They Make On Me Correspond With Outlying Objects, What Difference Does It Make, Whether Orion Is Up There In Heaven, Or Some God Paints The Image In The Firmament Of The Soul?
Knowledge
Differences
Heaven
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
We Do Not Yet Trust The Unknown Powers Of Thought. Whence Came All These Tools, Inventions, Book Laws, Parties, Kingdoms? Out Of The Invisible World, Through A Few Brains. The Arts And Institutions Of Men Are Created Out Of Thought. The Powers That Make The Capitalist Are Metaphysical, The Force Of Method And Force Of Will Makes Trade, And Builds Towns.
Art
Book
Men
You Shall Not Come Nearer A Man By Getting Into His House.
Friendship
Friends
Men
Go Cherish Your Soul; Express Companions; Set Your Habits To A Life Of Solitude; Then Will The Faculties Rise Fair And Full Within.
Soul
Solitude
Cherish
Fear Always Springs From Ignorance.
Spiritual
Fear
Spring
Man's Actions Are The Picture Book Of His Creeds.
Book
Men
Action
Strong Men Greet War, Tempest, Hard Times. They Wish, As Pindar Said, To Tread The Floors Of Hell, With Necessities As Hard As Iron.
Strong
War
Adversity
The Divine Gift Is Ever The Instant Life, Which Receives And Uses And Creates, And Can Well Bury The Old In The Omnipotency With Which Nature Decomposes All Her Harvest For Recomposition.
Use
Harvest
Divine
Where Do We Find Ourselves? In A Series Of Which We Do Not Know The Extremes, And Believe That It Has None. We Wake And Find Ourselves On A Stair; There Are Stairs Below Us, Which We Seem To Have Ascended; There Are Stairs Above Us, Many A One, Which Go Upward And Out Of Sight.
Life
Believe
Sight
Alas For The Unhappy Man That Is Called To Stand In The Pulpit, And Not Give The Bread Of Life.
Men
Bread Of Life
Giving
Let Us Replace Sentimentalism By Realism And Dare To Uncover Those Simple And Terrible Laws Which, Be They Seen Or Unseen, Pervade And Govern.
Simple
Law
Unseen
Providence Has A Wild, Rough, Incalculable Road To Its End, And It Is Of No Use To Try To Whitewash Its Huge, Mixed Instrumentalities, Or To Dress Up That Terrific Benefactor In A Clean Shirt And White Neckcloth Of A Student In Divinity.
White
Trying
Dresses
Society Is Infected With Rude, Cynical, Restless, And Frivolous Persons Who Prey Upon The Rest, And Whom No Public Opinion Concentrated Into Good Manners, Forms Accepted By The Sense Of All, Can Reach; The Contradictors And Railers At Public And Private Tables, Who Are Like Terriers, Who Conceive It The Duty Of A Dog Of Honor To Growl At Any Passer-by, And Do The Honors Of The House By Barking Him Out Of Sight.
Dog
Sight
Cynical
All Promise Outruns Performance.
Commitment
Promise
Performances
Everything Teaches Transition, Transference, Metamorphosis: Therein Is Human Power, In Transference, Not In Creation; & Therein Is Human Destiny, Not In Longevity But In Removal. We Dive & Reappear In New Places.
Destiny
Transition
Metamorphosis
We Are Wiser Than We Know.
Educational
Frustrated
Wiser
Many A Reformer Perishes In His Removal Of Rubbish,--and That Makes The Offensiveness Of The Class. They Are Partial; They Are Notequal To The Work They Pretend. They Lose Their Way; In The Assault On The Kingdom Of Darkness, They Expend All Their Energy On Some Accidental Evil, And Lose Their Sanity And Power Of Benefit.
Class
Evil
Darkness
Wild Liberty Breeds Iron Conscience; Natures With Great Impulses Have Great Resources, And Return From Far.
Freedom
Iron
Liberty
No Man Should Travel Until He Has Learned The Language Of The Country He Visits. Otherwise He Voluntarily Makes Himself A Great Baby - So Helpless And So Ridiculous.
Country
Baby
Witty
Pride Eradicates All Vices But Itself.
Pride
Vices
Nothing Is At Last Sacred But The Integrity Of Your Own Mind.
Motivational
Truth
Honesty
One Of The Illusions Of Life Is That The Present Hour Is Not The Critical, Decisive One.
Innovation
Life Is
Illusion
All I Have Seen Teaches Me To Trust The Creator For All I Have Not Seen.
Trust
Faith
Spiritual
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
Science Surpasses The Old Miracles Of Mythology.
Science
Miracle
Mythology
Only By Obedience To His Genius; Only By The Freest Activity In The Way Constitutional To Him, Does An Angel Seem To Arise Beforea Man, And Lead Him By The Hand Out Of All The Wards Of The Prison.
Freedom
Angel
Men
The Happiest Man Is He Who Learns From Nature The Lesson Of Worship
Inspirational
Life
Happiness
Government Exists To Defend The Weak And The Poor And The Injured Party; The Rich And The Strong Can Better Take Care Of Themselves.
Strong
Party
Government
Personal Beauty Is Then First Charming And Itself, When It Dissatisfies Us With Any End; When It Becomes A Story Without An End; When It Suggests Gleams And Visions, And Not Earthly Satisfactions; When It Makes The Beholder Feel His Unworthiness; When He Cannot Feel His Right To It, Though He Were Caesar; He Cannot Feel More Right To It Than To The Firmament And The Splendors Of A Sunset.
Beauty
Sunset
Vision
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
Scholarship Is To Be Created Not By Compulsion, But By Awakening A Pure Interest In Knowledge.
Educational
Awakening
Scholarship
A Bullet Had Found Him, His Blood Ran Out As He Cried. No Money Could Save Him, So He Laid Down And Died. Ooh, What A Lucky Man He Was.
Men
Blood
Politics
Love Is The Bright Foreigner, The Foreign Self.
Love
Self
Foreigners
The Soul Of God Is Poured Into The World Through The Thoughts Of Men.
God
Men
Thinking
Not A Ray Is Dimmed, Not An Atom Worn; Nature's Oldest Force Is As Good As New.
Nature
Rays
Atoms
To Eat Bread Is One Thing; To Love The Precepts Of Christ And Resolve To Obey Them Is Quite Another.
Bread
Christ
Communion
You Are Constantly Invited To Be What You Are.
Invited
Ten Percent Of People Can Think, Another Ten Percent Of People Think That They Think, And Eighty Percent Of People Would Rather Die Than Be Made To Think.
Thinking
People
Made
I Like People Who Like Plato.
Plato
People
Conversation In Society Is Found To Be On A Platform So Low As To Exclude Science, The Saint, And The Poet.
Saint
Poet
Lows
Whoever Is Open, Loyal, True; Of Humane And Affable Demeanour; Honourable Himself, And In His Judgement Of Others; Faithful To His Word As To Law, And Faithful Alike To God And Man....such A Man Is A True Gentleman.
Motivational
Men
Law
We First Share The Life By Which Things Exist, And Afterwards See Them As Appearances In Nature, And Forget That We Have Shared Their Cause.
Life
Firsts
Causes
I Have Thought A Sufficient Measure Of Civilization Is The Influence Of Good Women.
Sisterhood
Civilization
Good Woman
People Say Law But They Mean Wealth.
Mean
Law
People
Success To The Strongest, Who Are Always, At Last, The Wisest And Best.
Lasts
Strongest
Wisest
Virtues Are, In The Popular Estimate, Rather The Exception Than The Rule. There Is The Man And His Virtues.
Men
Self Reliance
Virtue
All Inquiry Into Antiquity, All Curiosity Respecting The Pyramids, The Excavated Cities, Stonehenge, The Ohio Circles, Mexico, Memphis,--is The Desire To Do Away This Wild, Savage, And Preposterous There And Then, And Introduce In Its Place The Here And Now.
Ohio
Cities
Circles
What Is Originality? It Is Being One's Self, And Reporting Accurately What We See And Are.
Self
Originality
Accuracy
We Shun The Rugged Battle Of Fate Where Strength Is Born.
Fate
Battle
Born
In Strict Science, All Persons Underlie The Same Condition Of An Infinite Remoteness. Shall We Fear To Cool Our Love By Mining Forthe Metaphysical Foundation Of This Elysian Temple? Shall I Not Be As Real As The Things I See? If I Am, I Shall Not Fear To Know Them For What They Are.
Real
Knowledge
Temples
Courage Consists In Equality To The Problem Before Us.
Courage
Equality
Problem
A Man Passes For That He Is Worth. What He Is Engraves Itself On His Face, On His Form, On His Fortunes, In Letters Of Light. Concealment Avails Him Nothing; Boasting Nothing. There Is Confession In The Glances Of Our Eyes; In Our Smiles; In Salutations; And The Grasp Of Hands.
Life
Eye
Men
We Cannot Let Our Angels Go; We Do Not See That They Only Go Out That Archangels May Come In.
Angel
May
Archangel
All Men, In The Abstract, Are Just And Good; What Hinders Them, In The Particular, Is, The Momentary Predominance Of The Finite And Individual Over The General Truth. The Condition Of Our Incarnation In A Private Self, Seems To Be, A Perpetual Tendency To Prefer The Private Law, To Obey The Private Impulse, To The Exclusion Of The Law Of The Universal Being.
Men
Self
Law
Genius Detects Through The Fly, Through The Caterpillar, Through The Grub, Through The Egg, The Constant Individual; Through Countless Individuals The Fixed Species; Through Many Species The Genus; Through All Genera The Steadfast Type; Through All The Kingdoms Of Organized Life The Eternal Unity. Nature Is A Mutable Cloud Which Is Always And Never The Same.
Nature
Eggs
Clouds
A Man Known To Us Only As A Celebrity In Politics Or In Trade, Gains Largely In Our Esteem If We Discover That He Has Some Intellectual Taste Or Skill.
Life
Men
Skills
Society Acquires New Arts, And Loses Old Instincts.
Art
Transcendentalism
Instinct
The Highest Revelation Is That God Is In Every Man.
Men
Revelations
Every Man
Nature Is Upheld By Antagonism.
Antagonism
The Terrible Tabulation Of The French Statists Brings Every Piece Of Whim And Humor To Be Reducible Also To Exact Numerical Ratios. If One Man In Twenty Thousand, Or In Thirty Thousand, Eats Shoes, Or Marries His Grandmother, Then, In Every Twenty Thousand, Or Thirty Thousand, Is Found One Man Who Eats Shoes, Or Marries His Grandmother.
Grandmother
Science
Men
Great Hearts Steadily Send Forth The Secret Forces That Incessantly Draw Great Events.
Positive
Heart
Law Of Attraction
God May Forgive Sins, He Said, But Awkwardness Has No Forgiveness In Heaven Or Earth.
Heaven
Awkward
Forgiving
Trending Author
Frank Gaffney
Guy Ritchie
Tom Robbins
Stanley Kubrick
Goldie Hawn
Nathan Meyer Rothschild
Category
Information