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

“A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.”

“Napoleon said of Massena, that he was not himself until the battle began to go against him; then, when the dead began to fall in ranks around him, awoke his powers of combination, and he put on terror and victory as a robe. So it is in rugged crises, in unweariable endurance, and in aims which put sympathy out of question, that the angel is shown.”

“It is not the length of life, but the depth.”

“For poetry was all written before time was, and whenever we are so finely organized that we can penetrate into that region where the air is music, we hear those primal warblings and attempt to write them down, but we lose ever and anon a word or a verse and substitute something of our own, and thus miswrite the poem. The men of more delicate ear write down these cadences more faithfully, and these transcripts, though imperfect, become the songs of the nations.”

“Doubt not, O poet, but persist. Say 'It is in me, and shall out.' Stand there, balked and dumb, stuttering and stammering, hissed and hooted, stand and strive, until at last rage draw out of thee that dream-power which every night shows thee is thine own; a power transcending all limit and privacy, and by virtue of which a man is the conductor of the whole river of electricity.”

“Poetry is an echo asking a shadow to dance.”

“Poetry is breathing words that give a reader pause.”

“There is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing.”

“Eros the melter of limbs (now again) stirs me -”

“Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,”

“What if you slept”