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Self-Reliance and Other Essays QUOTES

Self-Reliance and Other Essays QUOTES

1 " Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self. There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

2 " I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

3 " I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to a valued adviser who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the church. On my saying, What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested--'But these impulses may be from below, not from above.' I replied, 'They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the devil's child, I will live them from the devil. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

4 " A mind might ponder its thought for ages, and not gain so much self-knowledge as the passion of love shall teach it in a day. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

5 " Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

6 " The student is to read history actively not passively. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

7 " 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 christianized, it is rich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For every thing that is given, something is taken. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

8 " My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

9 " I do not wish to expiate, but to live. My life is not an apology, but a life. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

10 " Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore it if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

11 " Misunderstood! It is a right fool's word. Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

12 " What I must do is all that concerns me, "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

13 " You would compliment a coxcomb doing a good act, but you would not praise an angel. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

14 " Speak your latent conviction. . . Else tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

15 " True love transcends the unworthy object, and dwells and broods on the eternal, and when the poor interposed mask crumbles, it is not sad, but feels rid of so much earth, and feels its independency the surer. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

16 " It was surprising that Nature had gone tranquilly on with her golden process in the midst of so much devilment. "

― Stephen Crane , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

17 " You will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

18 " The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

19 " It makes no difference whether the appeal is to numbers or to one. The faith that stands on authority is not faith. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays

20 " I appeal from your customs. I must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer for you, or you. If you can love me for what I am, we shall be happier. If you cannot, I will still seek to deserve that you should. I must be myself. I will not hide my tastes or aversions. I will so trust that what is deep is holy, that I will do strongly before the sun and moon whatever inly rejoices me and the heart appoints. If you are noble, I will love you; if you are not, I will not hurt you and myself by hypocritical attentions. If you are true, but not in the same truth with me, cleave to your companions; I will seek my own. I do this not selfishly but humbly and truly. It is alike your interest, and mine, and all men’s, however long we have dwelt in lies, to live in truth. Does this sound harsh to-day? You will soon love what is dictated by your nature as well as mine, and if we follow the truth it will bring us out safe at last.—But so may you give these friends pain. Yes, but I cannot sell my liberty and my power, to save their sensibility. Besides, all persons have their moments of reason, when they look out into the region of absolute truth; then will they justify me and do the same thing.
The populace think that your rejection of popular standards is a rejection of all standard, and mere antinomianism; and the bold sensualist will use the name of philosophy to gild his crimes. But the law of consciousness abides. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson , Self-Reliance and Other Essays