Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most renowned and respected American authors and thinkers of all time.

He was a philosopher and essayist who is best known for his teachings on self-reliance, individualism and the need for spiritual values in society. Emerson’s essays and poems have been quoted by countless people over the years. His words are both insightful and thought-provoking, and his thoughts on life, love, happiness, and success continue to resonate with people to this day.

If you’re looking for some motivation or wisdom, look no further. Here’s a list of some of the most memorable Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes about life, happiness and the path to success.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

Sorrow looks back, Worry looks around, Faith looks up.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is my wish for you: Comfort on difficult days, smiles when sadness intrudes, rainbows to follow the clouds, laughter to kiss your lips, sunsets to warm your heart, hugs when spirits sag, beauty for your eyes to see, friendships to brighten your being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage to know yourself, patience to accept the truth, Love to complete your life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A friend is a person who goes around saying nice things about you behind your back.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Successful is the person who has lived well, laughed often and loved much, who has gained the respect of children, who leaves the world better than they found it, who has never lacked appreciation for the earth’s beauty, who never fails to look for the best in others or give the best of themselves.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

To be a star, you must shine your own light, follow your path, and don’t worry about the darkness, for that is when the stars shine brightest.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Neither you nor the world knows what you can do until you have tried.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

For each thorn, there’s a rosebud… For each twilight – a dawn… For each trial – the strength to carry on, For each storm cloud – a rainbow… For each shadow – the sun… For each parting – sweet memories when sorrow is done.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Live well, learn plenty, laugh often, love much.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We don’t grow old.  When we cease to grow, we become old.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

To get up each morning with the resolve to be happy is to set your own conditions to the events of each day. To do this is to condition circumstances instead of being conditioned by them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Insist upon yourself. Be original.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The civility of no race can be perfect whilst another race is degraded. It is a doctrine alike of the oldest and of the newest philosophy, that man is one, and that you cannot injure any member, without a sympathetic injury to all the members.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Self-trust is the first secret of success.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Always do what you are afraid to do. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes and silly people.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A house is made with walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little coarse and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice? Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The stupidity of men always invites the insolence of power.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Envy is ignorance, Imitation is Suicide.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the woods we return to reason and faith.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hitch your wagon to a star.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Accept your genius and say what you think.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Don’t waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Love is the essence of God.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The cheapness of man is every day’s tragedy.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting some on yourself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

What you do thunders above your head so loudly, I cannot hear the words you speak.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature hates calculators.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

You will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let the bird sing without deciphering the song.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

All is a riddle, and the key to a riddle…is another riddle.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Little minds have little worries, big minds have no time for worries.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every great man is unique.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The soul circumscribes all things.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The love that you withhold is the pain that you carry.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Why should the way I feel depend on the thoughts in someone else’s head?

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be silly. Be honest. Be kind.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The highest revelation is that God is in every man.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Men succeed when they realize that their failures are the preparation for their victories.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Character is higher than intellect… A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Your genuine action will explain itself, and

will explain your other genuine actions.

Your conformity explains nothing.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

If a man’s eye is on the Eternal, his intellect will grow.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Learn from it… tomorrow is a new day.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

People only see what they are prepared to see.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Allow yourself to trust joy and embrace it. You will find you dance with everything.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The years in your life are less important than the life in your years.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

What your heart thinks is great, is great. The soul’s emphasis is always right.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our strength grows out of our weakness.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force – that thoughts rule the world.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

When a man becomes a conformist, he is sacrificing the richness of independent thinking.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature is made to conspire with spirit to emancipate us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lose yourself in nature and find peace.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

One idea lights a thousand candles.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I suffer whenever I see that common sight of a parent or senior imposing his opinion and way of thinking and being on a young soul to which they are totally unfit. Cannot we let people be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way? You are trying to make that man another you. One’s enough.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Enthusiasm is the engine of success.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The wise man in the storm prays God not for safety from danger but for deliverance from fear.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We must be our own before we can be another’s.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

is the storm within which endangers him[,] not the storm without.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Patience and fortitude conquer all things.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It takes a good deal of character to judge a person by his future instead of his past.

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.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be not the slave of your own past.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The age of a woman doesn’t mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

God enters by a private door into every individual.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The first wealth is health.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The sky is the ultimate art gallery just above us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Those who stay away from the election think that one vote will do no good. ‘Tis but one step more to think one vote will do no harm.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self. There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is an optical illusion about every person we meet.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Society is infected with rude, cynical, restless, and frivolous persons who prey upon the rest, and whom no public opinion concentrated into good manners, forms accepted by the sense of all, can reach; the contradictors and railers at public and private tables, who are like terriers, who conceive it the duty of a dog of honor to growl at any passer-by, and do the honors of the house by barking him out of sight.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is a festival only to the wise.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things, and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Death comes to all, but great achievements build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

As the gardener, by severe pruning, forces the sap of the tree into one or two vigorous limbs, so should you stop off your miscellaneous activity and concentrate your force on one or a few points.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The true doctrine of omnipresence is, that God reappears with all his parts in every moss and cobweb.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Research is not seeing what others do not see, it is seeing the same thing as other people and thinking what they do not.

Ralph Waldo Emerson