Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

People destroy what they love.

What nourishes me also destroys me.

I often see how you sob over what you destroy, how you want to stop and just worship; and you do stop, and then a moment later you are at it again with a knife, like a surgeon.

For me, love carries the seeds of its own destruction.

It would take too long to explain the intimate alliance of contradictions in human nature which makes love itself wear at times the desperate shape of betrayal. And perhaps there is no possible explanation.

The first real terror struck him then, and there was nothing supernatural about it. It was only a realization of how easy it was to trash your life. That was what was so scary. You just dragged the fan up to everything you had spent the years raking together and turned the motherfucker on.

For sometimes you can't help but crave some ruin in what you love.

It hurts to want everything and nothing at the same time.

Humans are capable of so much creativity and goodness and at the same time they are destructive and cruel. (Leta)

Why, since we are always complaining of our ills, are we constantly employed in redoubling them?

We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice. Where is the skillful swordsman who can give clean wounds, and not rip up his work with the other edge?

I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life. I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to have loneliness, to work much and write good books, to travel and enjoy myself, to be selfish and to be unselfish… You see, it is difficult to get all which I want. And then when I do not succeed I get mad with anger.

I’m torn between the desire to create and the desire to destroy.

What men yearn for they often destroy.

It was terribly beautiful to Tess today, for since her eyes last fell upon it she had learnt that the serpent hisses where the sweet birds sing.

We have once again succeeded in destroying what we could not create.

Your Worst Enemy Could Be Your Best Friend && Your Best Friend Your Worst Enemy

You were destroyed by what you befriended.

By heaven you have destroyed me, my friends!

I'd rather go on hearing your lies, than to go on living without you.

What we have not has made us what we are. / ... / What we are not drives us to consummation.

My only love sprung from my only hate.

Fair and foul are near of kin And fair needs foul," I cried. "My friends are gone, but that's a truth Nor grave nor bed denied."

You may win your heart's desire, but in the end you're cheated of it by death.

why human beings despise what is beautiful and good, and seek to destroy the things they need the most