Quote #20

The key to the period appeared to be that the mind had become aware of itself ... The young men were born with knives in their brain, a tendency to introversion, self-dissection, anatomizing of motives.

More from Ralph Waldo Emerson

  1. Only the great generalizations survive. The sharp words of the Declaration of Independence, lampooned then and since as 'glittering general…
  2. A mollusk is a cheap edition [of man] with a suppression of the costlier illustrations, designed for dingy circulation, for shelving in an …
  3. If the colleges were better, if they ... had the power of imparting valuable thought, creative principles, truths which become powers, thou…
  4. Poetry teaches the enormous force of a few words, and, in proportion to the inspiration, checks loquacity.
  5. Never read any book that is not a year old.
  6. There are two classes of poets - the poets by education and practice, these we respect; and poets by nature, these we love.
  7. Nothing can be preserved that is not good.
  8. What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered.

All Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes