Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

Only as an individual can man become a philosopher.

I've been through a lot. I've thought a lot about life, and I've spent a lot of time studying history and science.

One can only become a philosopher, but not be one. As one believes he is a philosopher, he stops being one.

The object of studying philosophy is to know one's own mind, not other people's.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.

I've deliberately studied many things that I know, going in, I won't be able to assimilate. I read Plato, St. Thomas, the mystics, to exercise my mind.

The examined life is no picnic.

To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.

Plato says that the unexamined life is not worth living. But what if the examined life turns out to be a clunker as well?

Before researchers become researches they should become philosophers.

What is it to be a philosopher? Is it not to be prepared against events?

We need wisdom the most when we believe in it the least.

Say, Not so, and you will out circle the philosophers.

There is no real philosophy until the mind turns around and examines itself.

It is wisdom that is seeking for wisdom.

The love of wisdom is a way of life; that is to say, it's a set of practices that have to do with mustering the courage to think critically about ourselves, society, and the world; mustering the courage to empathize; the courage, I would say, to love; the courage to have compassion with others, especially the widow and the orphan, the fatherless and the motherless, poor and working peoples, gays and lesbians, and so forth - and the courage to hope.

One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything.

That man is best who sees the truth himself. Good too is he who listens to wise counsel. But who is neither wise himself nor willing to ponder wisdom is not worth a straw.

Now you are beginning to think for yourself instead of letting others think for you. That’s the beginning of wisdom.

Socrates' way of life is the consequence of his recognition that we can know what it is that we do not know about the most important things and that we are by nature obliged to seek that knowledge.

That's what I've decided I am. A seeker of wisdom and truth.

The great critic … must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things.

Yeah, leading an examined life, I always say, is a pain in the ass. It adds an element of complexity to business that most businessmen don't want to hear about. They just want to call a fabric manufacturer, and say, "Hey, give us 10,000 yards of shirting."

Be very slow to believe that you are wiser than all others; it is a fatal but common error. Where one has been saved by a true estimation of another's weakness, thousands have been destroyed by a false appreciation of their own strength.