“Character is higher than intellect.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)
The American Scholar (Primary source)
Delivered as a commencement address at Harvard, this speech was famously dubbed America’s Intellectual Declaration of Independence by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., an American polymath. Emerson urged American intellectuals to break free from European traditions and cultivate a uniquely American voice and scholarship, emphasizing the role of the scholar as Man Thinking.
More about “The American Scholar” →
“Character is higher than intellect. Thinking is the function. Living is the functionary. The stream retreats to its source. A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)
“The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)“In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)“The law of nature is, Do the thing, and you shall have the power: but they who do not the thing have not the power.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)More quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson →
“With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)“To be great is to be misunderstood.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)“Well done is twice done.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Hold your council before dinner; the full belly hates thinking as well as acting.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)