Wisdom Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“It is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a poem,—a thought so passionate and alive that like the spirit of a plant or an animal it has an architecture of its own, and adorns nature with a new thing. The thought and the form are equal in the order of time, but in the order of genesis the thought is prior to the form.”

“It does not need that a poem should be long. Every word was once a poem.”

“A man's power to connect his thought with its proper symbol, and so to utter it, depends on the simplicity of his character, that is, upon his love of truth, and his desire to communicate it without loss.”

“Life is a series of surprises and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.”

“Every man's condition is a solution in hieroglyphic to those inquiries he would put. He acts it as life, before he apprehends it as truth. In like manner, nature is already, in its forms and tendencies, describing its own design. Let us interrogate the great apparition, that shines so peacefully around us. Let us inquire, to what end is nature?”

“As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all - the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.”

“You always know the truth, because when you cut yourself or someone else with it, there’s always a bloody show.”

“The failure mode of clever is “asshole.”

“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.”

“Perhaps the hardest lesson to learn is not to be attached to the results of your actions.”

“Do not believe the road signs. There is no "one way." If it's your truth then it's the right way.”