Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

Everything is autobiographical and everything is a portrait.

Listen to what people say about themselves; they will tell you everything you need to know.

It is difficult to know oneself, but it isn't easy to paint oneself either.

Self-portraits are a way of revealing something about oneself.

I'm really bad at describing my own life.

It is always the instantaneous reaction to oneself that produces a photograph.

I don't think that I'm that sophisticated. Maybe I'm not aware of it, I don't know.

There is no self-portrait of me.

Sometimes I think all my pictures are just pictures of me.

I tend to see - socially, I don't tend to be myself in a male role. I don't know any other way to put it.

Everyone likes taking their own photos and seeing themselves reflected back.

I always have a hard time describing myself.

When all is said, a man's final judgment of his fellows must be based upon his knowledge of himself

You're who you think you are, even if you never admit it to yourself or to anyone else. You may be in the worst position to judge, but you're in the best position to know.

It is little silly to be a caricature of something of which you know very little, and which means very little to you, but to be your own caricature — that is the true carnival!

If we can stop, listen, and think about what others are seeing in us, we have a great opportunity. We can compare the self that we want to be with the self that we are presenting to the rest of the world. We can then begin to make the real changes that are needed to close the gap between our stated values and our actual behavior.

I'm really good at judging and observing other people, but not myself.

Who judges best of a Man, his Enemies or himself?

Although human beings are incapable of talking about themselves with total honesty, it is much harder to avoid the truth while pretending to be other people. They often reveal much about themselves in a very straightforward way. I am certain that I did. There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself.

Seeing that I am so busily occupied with myself just now, I want to try to paint my self-portrait in writing.

There are no souls in the world that are so fearful to judge others as those that do most judge themselves, nor so careful to make a righteous judgment of men or things as those that are most careful to judge themselves.

I always let other people describe me because if I describe myself you will not understand.

It is a hard and nice subject for a man to speak of himself: it grates his own heart to say anything of disparagement, and the reader's ear to hear anything of praise from him.

I have never for one instant seen clearly within myself. How then would you have me judge the deeds of others?