
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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