Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, on Power and Politics)

“All kinds of power usually emerge at the same time; good energy and bad; power of mind with physical health; the ecstasies of devotion with the exasperations of debauchery. The same elements are always present, only sometimes these conspicuous, and sometimes those; what was yesterday foreground, being to-day background;—what was surface, playing now a not less effective part as basis. The longer the drought lasts the more is the atmosphere surcharged with water. The faster the ball falls to the sun, the force to fly off is by so much augmented. And in morals, wild liberty breeds iron conscience; natures with great impulses have great resources, and return from far. In politics, the sons of democrats will be whigs; whilst red republicanism in the father is a spasm of nature to engender an intolerable tyrant in the next age. On the other hand, conservatism, ever more timorous and narrow, disgusts the children and drives them for a mouthful of fresh air into radicalism.” — American essayist-poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “Power,” in The Conduct of Life (1860)

Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, on Collective Action as a Source of Strength)

“Concert appears the sole specific of strength. I have failed, and you have failed, but perhaps together we shall not fail.” — American philosopher, essayist, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “New England Reformers,” in Essays: Second Series (1844)

Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, on ‘The Form of Government Which Prevails’)

“[T]he form of government which prevails, is the expression of what cultivation exists in the population which permits it.”— American philosopher, essayist, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “Politics” (1844)

Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, on Thought, ‘The Seed of Action’)

“Thought is the seed of action; but action is as much its second form as thought is its first. It rises in thought to the end, that it may be uttered and acted. The more profound the thought, the more burdensome. Always in proportion to the depth of its sense does it knock importunately at the gates of the soul, to be spoken, to be done. What is in, will out. It struggles to the birth.”— American essayist-poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “Art,” originally printed in The Dial, January 1841, reprinted in Society and Solitude (1870) 

Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, on Freedom)

“The noble craftsman we promote,
Disown the knave and fool;
Each honest man shall have his vote,
Each child shall have his school.
For what avail the plow or sail,
Or land, or life, if freedom fail?”—American essayist, poet, and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “Boston,” in The Atlantic Monthly, February 1876

Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, on the American Libertarian Streak)

“It is the age of severance, of dissociation, of freedom, of analysis, of detachment. Every man for himself. The public speaker disclaims speaking for any other; he answers only for himself. The social sentiments are weak; the sentiment of patriotism is weak; veneration is low; the natural affections feebler than they were. People grow philosophical about native land and parents and relations. There is an universal resistance to ties and ligaments once supposed essential to civil society. The new race is stiff, heady and rebellious. They are fanatics in freedom; they hate tolls, taxes, turnpikes, banks, hierarchies, governors, yea, almost laws.”—American essayist, philosopher, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “Historic Notes of Life and Letters in New England,” Atlantic Monthly, October 1883; originally written in 1867, reprinted in Emerson, Lectures and Biographical Sketches (1909)

Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, on Beauty)

“Wherever snow falls or water flows or birds fly, wherever day and night meet in twilight, wherever the blue heaven is hung by clouds or sown with stars, wherever are forms with transparent boundaries, wherever are outlets into celestial space, wherever is danger, and awe, and love, — there is Beauty, plenteous as rain, shed for thee, and though thou shouldest walk the world over, thou shalt not be able to find a condition inopportune or ignoble.”— American philosopher, essayist, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “The Poet,” in Essays: Second Series (1844)

Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Warning Not to ‘Waste Yourself in Rejection’)

"Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good."— American essayist-philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), journal entry, July 1841, in The Heart of Emerson’s Journals, edited by Bliss Perry (1926)

Movie Quote of the Day (‘What's Up, Doc?’, With Streisand Proving the Value of Loving Emerson)

Howard Bannister [played by Ryan O’Neal]: “Sir, I must point out to you...”

Frederick Larrabee [played by Austin Pendleton]: “I must point out to you that foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

Judy Maxwell [played by Barbra Streisand]: “Emerson!”

Frederick: “I beg your pardon?”

Judy: “Ralph Waldo Emerson, born 1803 died 1882.”

Frederick: “You like Emerson?”

Judy: “I adore him.”

Frederick: “I adore anyone who adores Emerson!”

Judy: “And I adore anyone who adores anyone who adores Emerson. Your turn!”

Frederick: “She's a delight, Bannister, a delight—and you're a lucky dog.”

Howard: “I...”

Frederick: “Admit it! Admit you're a lucky dog.”

Howard [helplessly]: “I'm a lucky dog.”

Frederick: “Miss Burns, may I call you Eunice?”

Howard: “No!”

Frederick: “What's that?”

Judy: “What Howard means is that back where we come from, everyone calls me Burnsey.”

Frederick: “Burnsey! I like that.”—What's Up, Doc? (1972), screenplay by Buck Henry, David Newman and Robert Benton, directed by Peter Bogdanovich

Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, on ‘This Time’)

“This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.”—American essayist-poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “The American Scholar,” delivered to the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College, August 31, 1837

Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, on Those Who Refuse to Take Part in Government)

"The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men." —American essayist, poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “Eloquence,” in Society and Solitude (1870)

Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, on How ‘The Force of Character is Cumulative’)

“The force of character is cumulative. All the foregone days of virtue work their health into this. What makes the majesty of the heroes of the senate and the field, which so fills the imagination? The consciousness of a train of great days and victories behind. They shed an united light on the advancing actor. He is attended as by a visible escort of angels. That is it which throws thunder into Chatham's voice, and dignity into Washington's port, and America into Adams's eye. Honor is venerable to us because it is no ephemera. It is always ancient virtue. We worship it to-day because it is not of to-day. We love it and pay it homage because it is not a trap for our love and homage, but is self-dependent, self-derived, and therefore of an old immaculate pedigree, even if shown in a young person.” —U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), "Self-Reliance," in Essays, First Series (1841)

Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, on What Is Most Astonishing)

“Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.”— American philosopher, essayist, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “Art,” 1841

Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, on Life)

“Life is an ecstasy.”— American philosopher, essayist, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “The Method of Nature,” delivered before the Society of the Adelphi, in Waterville College, Maine, August 11, 1841

Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, on Culture)

“Culture opens the sense of beauty.” — American philosopher, essayist, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “Culture,” in Conduct of Life (1860)