Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson

1803-1882 • American

Transcendentalism

American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement. Champion of individualism and the divine in nature.

Key Works

  • Self-Reliance
  • Nature
  • Essays
110

quotes in library

Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

110 quotes
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
self-relianceSelf-Reliance (1841)
Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.
individualitySelf-Reliance
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
self-trustSelf-Reliance
To be great is to be misunderstood.
individualitySelf-Reliance
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
freedomSelf-Reliance
Speak what you think now in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.
truthSelf-Reliance
Insist on yourself; never imitate.
individualitySelf-Reliance
Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation.
vocationSelf-Reliance
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
peaceSelf-Reliance
Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.
peaceSelf-Reliance
Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.
individualitySelf-Reliance
Self-reliance is its aversion.
self-relianceSelf-Reliance
It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.
directnessSelf-Reliance
Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness.
freedomSelf-Reliance
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
integritySelf-Reliance
Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.
self-trustSelf-Reliance
In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts.
geniusSelf-Reliance
They come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.
geniusSelf-Reliance
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
leadershipRalph Waldo Emerson Essays
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