Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose original profession and calling was as a Unitarian minister, left the ministry to pursue a career in writing and public speaking. Emerson became one of America's best known and best loved 19th century figures. 

Quotations by Ralph Waldo Emerson :

"A man is relieved and happy when he has put his heart into his work and done his best."

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."

"For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."

"Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain."

"A friend is one before whom I may think aloud."

"A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer."

"A man of genius is privileged only as far as he is genius. His dullness is as insupportable as any other dullness."

"All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen."

"All our progress is an unfolding, like a vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason."

"As we grow old…the beauty steals inward."

"Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall com back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old."

"Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet."

"Character is higher than intellect... A great soul will be strong to live, as well as to think." 

"Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for his competitors, for it is that which all are practising every day while they live."

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

"Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."

"Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good."

"Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm."

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could."

"Give all to love; obey thy heart."

"God enters by a private door into every individual."

"He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear."

"I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new."

"If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me."

Great good books written by Ralph Waldo Emerson :
Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
- The definitive collection of Emerson's major speeches, essays, and poetry, The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson chronicles the life's work of a true "American Scholar."

"He who believes in nobody knows that he himself is not to be trusted."
*-- Red Auerbach 

"The will to succeed is important, but what's more important is the will to prepare."
*-- Bobby Knight 

"If you have a positive attitude and constantly strive to give your best effort, eventually you will overcome your immediate problems and find you are ready for greater challenges. 
*-- Pat Riley 

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