Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes


We do not know today whether we are busy or idle. In times when we thought ourselves indolent, we have afterwards discovered that much was accomplished, and much was begun in us.


Citations

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Experience." Essays: Second Series, James Munroe and Company, 1844, p. 48.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Born: May 25, 1803
  • Died: April 27, 1882
  • Nationality: American
  • Profession: Poet

Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.