11 Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes on Perception

Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes on perception

26. All the thoughts of a turtle are turtles, and of rabbits, rabbits.

30. To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.

53. The charming landscape which I saw this morning, is indubitably made up of some twenty or thirty farms. Miller owns this field, Locke that, and Manning the woodland beyond. But none of them owns the landscape. There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet. This is the best part of these men's farms, yet to this their warranty-deeds give no title. To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food.

83. The difference between men is in their principle of association. Some men classify objects by color and size and other accidents of appearance; others by intrinsic likeness, or by the relation of cause and effect. The progress of the intellect is to the clearer vision of causes, which neglects surface differences. To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all men divine. For the eye is fastened on the life, and slights the circumstance. Every chemical substance, every plant, every animal in its growth, teaches the unity of cause, the variety of appearance.

148. Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them.

183. Every hero becomes a bore at last.

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

209. Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but, until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful.

234. Far or forgot to me is near; Shadow and sunlight are the same; The vanished gods to me appear; And one to me are shame and fame.

293. It is an amiable illusion, which the shape of our planet prompts, that every man is at the top of the world.

301. Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies. (see also: Truth & Lies)