Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes on Virtue
Emerson's Essays: First Series (1841) — particularly Self-Reliance, Compensation, and Spiritual Laws — supply the central American Transcendentalist treatment of moral virtue. Self-reliance — the courageous trust in the original moral promptings of one's own soul against the conformist pressures of society — is presented not as egoistic self-assertion but as the inward fidelity to the universal Spirit whose particular voice each individual conscience is. The corresponding doctrine of compensation holds that the moral order of the universe ensures that every act carries within itself its full reward or punishment, regardless of what social or institutional consequences may follow. The framework grounds the broader Emersonian ethics of original character, and shaped Thoreau, Whitman, William James, and the wider American tradition.
Quotes
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Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
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Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”
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Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.”
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Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.”
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“Hitch your wagon to a star.”
Civilization -
Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
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Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
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Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
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“Character is higher than intellect...A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think.”
The American Scholar(1837) | par. 27 -
“I think no virtue goes with size; The reason of all cowardice Is, that men are overgrown, And, to be valiant, must come down To the titmouse dimension.”
May-Day and Other Pieces(1867) | The Titmouse , st. 5 -
“Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, and no force of character can make any stand against good wit.”
Letters and Social Aims(1876) | The Comic