“Standing on the bare ground—my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space—all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (verified)
Nature (Primary source)
This is considered Emerson’s foundational text and the cornerstone of American Transcendentalism. In it, he outlines his philosophy of nature as a source of spiritual insight and a mirror to the human soul. It calls for an original relation to the universe and a rejection of traditional ways of understanding the world.
“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 →
“He did not care for the lying at first. He hated it. Then later he had come to like it. It was part of being an insider but it was a very corrupting business.”
— Ernest Hemingway (verified)“A man being sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being thought to have but little.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (unverified)“Nothing so popular as goodness.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)