Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson

What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.

When you strike at a king, you must kill him.

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.

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.

Work and acquire, and thou hast chained the wheel of Chance.

Hitch your wagon to a star.
("American Civilization", The Atlantic Monthly, 1862)

In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.
("Self Reliance")

Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.
("Self-Reliance", 1841)

Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.
('Art,' 1841)

Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis.
('Journals,' 1836)

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
(attributed)

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
(attributed)

He who is in love is wise and is becoming wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses.
(Address on The Method of Nature, 1841)

To be great is to be misunderstood.
(An Essay on Self-Reliance)

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.
(Essays, First Series: Prudence, 1841)

Immortality. I notice that as soon as writers broach this question they begin to quote. I hate quotation. Tell me what you know.
(Journal ,May 1849)

When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart.
(Journals, 1824)

The best effect of fine persons is felt after we have left their presence.
(Journals, 1839)

Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it.
(Letters and Social Aims 'Quotation and Originality')

Every artist was first an amateur.
(Letters and Social Aims: Progress of Culture, 1876)