Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

On changing your mind without shame:

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

On trusting your own judgment:

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

On taking a stance that costs you popularity:

To be great is to be misunderstood.

On resisting pressure to conform:

Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.

On copying someone else's path:

Insist on yourself; never imitate.

Deciding whether to follow group consensus or your own read of the situation:

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

On whether passion or discipline drives success:

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

Deciding whether to leave stability for a path that is still forming:

People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them.

On finding a mentor who pushes you:

Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can.

On weighing what a big choice costs you:

For every thing you have missed, you have gained something else; and for every thing you gain, you lose something.

On grief that only makes sense with time:

The years teach much which the days never know.

Making sense of a grief that feels strangely distant from what you expected to feel:

In the death of my son, now more than two years ago, I seem to have lost a beautiful estate, no more. I cannot get it nearer to me.

Deciding whether to wait for better friends or become one first:

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

Deciding how much effort a rare friendship is worth protecting:

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

Deciding whether to let people see how much you care about someone:

All mankind love a lover.