Quotes for the Journey: Ralph Waldo Emerson People's actions are the picture book of their creeds.

Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong.  There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right.  To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires. . . courage.     Finish every 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 cumbered with your old nonsense.  This day is all that is good and fair.  It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays.     The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil.     All our progress is an unfolding, like a vegetable bud.  You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge as the plant has root, bud, and fruit.  Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.     I like to have a person's knowledge comprehend more than one class of topics, one row of shelves.  I like a person who likes to see a fine barn as well as a good tragedy.      The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to us when we discover that someone else believes in us and is willing to trust us with their friendship.

We take care of our health, we lay up money, we make our room tight, and our clothing sufficient; but who provides wisely that he or she shall not be wanting in the best property of all--friends?

Though it's not a quote from Emerson, this passage has been so often attributed to Emerson, and we realize that many people will be looking for it on this page:  To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest criticism and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty and find the best in others; to leave this world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived-- this is to have succeeded.

The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius; for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character.

Life is full of surprises, and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.

Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine.

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

People are timid and apologetic; they are no longer upright; they dare not say "I think," "I am," but quote some sage or saint.  They are ashamed before the blade of grass or the blowing rose.  These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day.

What I do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.  This rule, equally arduous in actual and intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness.  It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.  It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great person is the one who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Wherever snow falls, or water flows, or birds fly, wherever day and night meet in twilight, wherever the blue heaven is hung by clouds, or sown with stars, wherever are forms with transparent boundaries, wherever are outlets into celestial space, wherever is danger, and awe, and love, there is Beauty, plenteous as rain, shed for thee, and though thou shouldest walk the world over, thou shalt not be able to find a condition inopportune or ignoble.

The happiest person is the one who learns from nature the lesson of worship.

To fill the hour,--that is happiness; to fill the hour, and leave no crevice for a repentance or an approval. . . . To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom. . . . Since our office is with moments, let us husband them.  Five minutes of to-day are worth as much to me, as five minutes in the next millennium.  Let us be poised, and wise, and our own, to-day.  Let us treat the men and women well:  treat them as if they were real: perhaps they are.

I am thankful for small mercies.  I compared notes with one of my friends who expects everything of the universe, and is disappointed when anything is less than the best, and I found that I begin at the other extreme, expecting nothing, and am always full of thanks for moderate goods.

All life is an experiment.  The more experiments you make the better.

As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.

Let me admonish you, first of all, to go alone; to refuse the good models, even those most sacred in the imagination of humans, and dare to love God without mediator or veil.  Friends enough you shall find who will hold up to your emulation Wesleys and Oberlins, Saints and Prophets.  Thank God for these good people, but say, "I also am a human being."  Imitation cannot go above its model.  The imitator dooms him or herself to hopeless mediocrity.  The inventors did it, because it was natural to them, and so in them it has a charm.  In the imitators, something else is natural, and they bereave themselves of their own beauty, to come short of another person's.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting --  a wayside sacrament.  Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no person can sincerely try to help another without helping him or herself.

Wisdom is like electricity.  There is no permanently wise person, but people capable of wisdom, who, being put into certain company, or other favorable conditions, become wise for a short time, as glasses rubbed acquire electric power for a while.

Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself.  Go forward and make your dreams come true.

To help the young soul, to inspire hope and blow the coals into a useful flame, is the work of living, divine person.

Wise people put their trust in ideas and perhaps not in circumstances.

Imagination is not a talent of some people but is in the health of every person.

Many are the prisoners of ideas.

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is for you.

To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.

Respect the child. Trespass not on his or her solitude.

Hold your peace and do not pollute the morning.

Home - About - Links - abundance - acceptance - achievement - action - adversity - aging - ambition - America anger - anticipation - apathy - appreciation - arrogance - attitude - authenticity - autumn - awareness - awe balance - beauty - being yourself - beliefs - body - brooding - busyness - celebration - challenges - change character - children - choice - Christianity - Christmas - coincidence - commitment - common sense community - comparison - compassion - complaining - compliments - compromise - confidence - conformity conscience - contentment - control - courage - covetousness - creativity - crisis - criticism - cruelty - death desire - determination - discouragement - diversity - doubt - dreams - earth - education - ego - encouragement enlightenment - enthusiasm - envy - eternity - experience - failure - faith - family - fathers - fault-finding - fear flowers - forgiveness - freedom - friendship - fun - the garden of life - gardening - generosity - gentleness - giving goals - God - goodness - grace - gratitude - greed - grief - growing up - guilt - happiness - hatred - healing - health helpfulness - home - honesty - hope - hospitality - humility - hurry - ideals - idleness - idolatry - ignorance imagination - impatience - individuality - inspiration - integrity - introspection - intuition - jealousy - journey - joy judgment - kindness - knowledge - laughter - law of attraction - laziness - leadership - learning - letting go - life listening - loneliness - love - lying - marriage - materialism - meanness - meditation - mindfulness - miracles mistakes - mistrust - money - mothers - mystery - nature - negative attitude - new year - oneness open mindedness - opportunity - optimism - pain - patience - peace - perfectionism - perseverance - perspective pessimism - play - positive thinking - possessions - potential - prayer - prejudice - the present moment - pride principle - prosperity - purpose - reflection - relationships - religion - resentment - respect - responsibility - rest revenge - risk - role models - sadness - safety - the seasons of life - self - self-love - self-pity - self-respect service - shame - silence - simplicity - smiles - solitude - spirit - spring - success - summer - the tapestry of life teachers - Thanksgiving - thoughts - time - today - trust - truth - values - vanity - war - weight - winter - wisdom wonder - work - worry - worship - youth - zen Dale Carnegie - Albert Einstein - Ralph Waldo Emerson - Anne Morrow Lindbergh - Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross Helen Keller - Mother Teresa - Eleanor Roosevelt - Orison Swett Marden - Albert Schweitzer - Aristotle Mohandas Gandhi - Wilferd A. Peterson

Two great Kindle books from livinglifefully.com!  First, the daily meditations from the first year are gathered together in a single volume at just $2.99 for the entire year, and second, almost 4,000 quotes from livingllifefully.com are gathered in one volume for just 99 cents--that's right, for less than one dollar, you can have thousands of quotes that took years to gather on your own PC, Mac, or Kindle, to have with you wherever you are.