A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud.
Author
Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes & passages
12 passages by Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Essays: First Series and Essays: Second Series. Ralph Waldo Emerson died in 1882, so the words are in the public domain. Every passage is copied word for word from the Project Gutenberg text.
About Ralph Waldo Emerson
American essayist, lecturer and poet (1803–1882), leader of the Transcendentalist movement. Wrote “Nature” and “Self-Reliance”.
Read their work on Project Gutenberg
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
To be great is to be misunderstood.
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.
Insist on yourself; never imitate.
All mankind love a lover.
To fill the hour,—that is happiness; to fill the hour and leave no crevice for a repentance or an approval.
The only gift is a portion of thyself.
Life is a train of moods like a string of beads, and as we pass through them they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue, and each shows only what lies in its focus.
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