Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes on Life
Ralph Waldo Emerson approached life as an open field for experiment and aspiration, and the quotes gathered here express that buoyant outlook. All life is an experiment, he wrote in his journals, urging boldness over timidity, for the more experiments you make the better. Emerson counselled high aim, in the famous image of hitching one's wagon to a star, and he held that life's possibilities are far from exhausted, since the cup of life is not so shallow that the best is quickly drained. In his verse he treats loss itself as part of life's renewal, promising that when half-gods go, the gods arrive. Drawn from his essays, poems, and journals, these passages show the characteristic Transcendentalist confidence that life rewards enthusiasm, openness, and self-trust.
Quotes
-
“Hitch your wagon to a star.”
Civilization -
Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
-
“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”
November 11, 1842 -
“Life is too short to waste The critic bite or cynic bark, Quarrel, or reprimand; 'Twill soon be dark; Up! mind thine own aim, and God speed the mark!”
Poems(1847) | To J. W. , st. 4 -
“Though thou loved her as thyself, As a self of purer clay, Tho' her parting dims the day, Stealing grace from all alive, Heartily know, When half-gods go, The gods arrive.”
Poems(1847) | Give All to Love , st. 4 -
“Nor knowest thou what argument Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent: All are needed by each one, Nothing is fair or good alone.”
Poems(1847) | Each and All , st. 1 -
“The cup of life is not so shallow That we have drained the best That all the wine at once we swallow And lees make all the rest.”
Journals (1822–1863) | 1827 -
“Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”
Journals (1822–1863) | November 11, 1842