In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, – no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, – my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, – all mean egotism vanishes. […]
Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
For the eye is fastened on the life, and slights the circumstance. Every chemical substance, every plant, every animal in its growth, teaches the unity of cause, the variety of appearance.
We are taught by great actions that the universe is the property of every individual in it. Every rational creature has all nature for his dowry and estate.
Life is not intellectual or critical, but sturdy. Its chief good is for well-mixed people who can enjoy what they find, without question. Nature hates peeping, and our mothers speak her very sense when they say, ‘Children, eat your victuals, and say no more of it.’
A nation never falls but by suicide.
I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions.
He with holds his name. At the hotel, he is hardly willing to whisper it to the clerk at the book-office. If he gives you his private address on a card it is like an avowal of friendship; and his bearing, on being introduced, is cold, even though he is seeking your acquaintance, and is […]
I stayed in London till I had become acquainted with all the styles of face in the street, and till I had found the suburbs and then straggling houses on each end of the city. Then I took a cab, left my farewell cards, and came home. I saw Alison, Thackeray, Cobden, Tennyson, Bailey, Marston, […]
A few strong instincts and a few plain rules suffice us.
Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.
