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

“Most of the shadows of life are caused by standing in our own sunshine.”

“The poet is the sayer, the namer, and represents beauty.”

“Oblivion here thy wisdom is,”

“It could be said that a single person has written all the books in the world such central unity is in them that they are undeniably the work of a single all-knowing master.”

“The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.”

“Everybody we know surrounds himself with a fine house, fine books, conservatory, gardens, equipage, and all manner of toys, as screens to interpose between himself and his guest. Does it not seem as if man was of a very sly, elusive nature, and dreaded nothing so much as a full rencontre front to front with his fellow?”

“And now, for something completely the same:”

“The contract between the author and the reader is a game. And the game . . . is one of the greatest invetions of Western civilization: the game of telling stories, inventing characters, and creating the imaginary paradise of the individual, from whence no one can be expelled because, in a novel, no one owns the truth and everyone has the right to be heard and understood.”

“The church must suffer for speaking the truth, for pointing out sin, for uprooting sin. No one wants to have a sore spot touched, and therefore a society with so many sores twitches when someone has the courage to touch it and say: “You have to treat that. You have to get rid of that. Believe in Christ. Be converted.”

“Never hold resentments for the person who tells you what you need to hear; count them among your truest, most caring, and valuable friends.”

“Eventually everything connects — people, ideas, objects...the quality of the connections is the key to quality per se...I don't believe in this 'gifted few' concept, just in people doing things they are really interested in doing. They have a way of getting good at whatever it is.”