Archive for the ‘Ralph Waldo Emerson’ Category

The affirmative of affirmatives is love

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
gift flowers

As much love, so much perception. As caloric to matter, so is love to mind; so it enlarges, and so it empowers it. Good-will makes insight, as one finds his way to the sea by embarking on a river. I have seen scores of people who …

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Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air

Friday, June 18th, 2010
sunset beach kites

Where the star Canope shines in May,
Shepherds are thankful, and nations gay.
The music that can deepest reach,
And cure all ill, is cordial speech…

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Don’t waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good

Saturday, June 12th, 2010
meditative dancer

The affirmative of affirmatives is love. As much love, so much perception. As caloric to matter, so is love to mind; so it enlarges, and so it empowers it. Good-will makes insight, as one finds his way to the sea by embarking on a…

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Earth laughs in flowers

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
bright borage

Hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wool, and wood.
Each of these landlords walked amidst his farm,
Saying, ” ‘Tis mine, my children’s, and my name’s:
How sweet the west wind sounds in my own trees…

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We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken

Friday, June 4th, 2010
soup kitchen chef

How many persons we meet in houses, whom we scarcely speak to, whom yet we honor, and who honor us! How many we see in the street, or sit with in church, whom, though silently, we warmly rejoice to be with! Read the language of these wandering eyebeams…

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A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
two toddlers playing with water

But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me. My friend gives me entertainment without requiring any stipulation on my part. A friend, therefore, is a sort of paradox in nature. I who alone am…

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Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string

Sunday, May 16th, 2010
green eyed girl

We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is…

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Happy is the house that shelters a friend!

Sunday, September 6th, 2009
Emerson house

I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, but with roughest courage. When they are real, they are not glass threads or frostwork, but the solidest thing we know. For now, after so many ages of experience, what do we know of nature…

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The power men possess to annoy me, I give them by a weak curiosity

Sunday, August 9th, 2009
stop hand

At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closet door, and say, “Come out unto us.” But keep the…

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Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
The Scream, by Edvard Munch

This disaster of the Cherokees, brought to me by a sad friend to blacken my days and nights! I can do nothing; why shriek? Why strike ineffectual blows? I stir in it for the sad reason that no other mortal will move, and if I do not…

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I must be myself

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
Ralph Waldo Emerson love quote t shirt

I will so trust that what is deep is holy, that I will do strongly before the sun and moon whatever inly rejoices me, and the heart appoints. If you are noble, I will love you; if you are not, I will not hurt you and myself by hypocritical attentions. If you are true, but not in the same truth with me, cleave to your companions; I will seek…

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Language is fossil poetry

Sunday, March 29th, 2009
flowering tree

The poets made all the words, and therefore language is the archives of history, and, if we must say it, a sort of tomb of the muses. For though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency because for the moment it symbolized the world to the first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist…

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