“The life of man is a self-evolving circle, which, from a ring imperceptibly small, rushes on all sides outwards to new and larger circles, and would embrace at last the universal sphere.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A vivid description of human growth and the continuous expansion of our understanding and being.
Circles (Primary source)
In this essay, Emerson discusses the idea that everything in life is constantly expanding and evolving, like concentric circles. It emphasizes the fluid and ever-changing nature of truth and knowledge.
“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 Primary source“The years teach much which the days never know.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary sourceMore quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson →
“If a man owns land, the land owns him.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“No man ever was glorious who was not laborious.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Let him think I am more man than I am and I will be so.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“The motive of science was the extension of man, on all sides, into Nature, till his hands should touch the stars.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source