Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes about Writing

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. Finish every day and be done with it. You have

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing, Heart, Optimistic

In good writing, words become one with things.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing, Writing Words, Good Writing

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1992). “The Topical Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.376, University of Missouri Press

On the other side, the conservative party, composed of the most moderate, able, and cultivated part of the population, is timid, and merely defensive of property. It vindicates no right, it aspires to no real good, it brands no crime, it proposes no generous policy, it does not build, nor write, nor cherish the arts, nor foster religion, nor establish schools, nor encourage science, nor emancipate the slave, nor befriend the poor, or the Indian, or the immigrant.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Art, Real, Writing

Essays, Second Series "Politics" (1844)

The Gods we worship write their names on our faces; be sure of that. And a man will worship something ... That which dominates will determine his life and character. Therefore it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing, Character, Men

The good writer seems to be writing about himself, but has his eye always on that thread of the Universe which runs through himself and all things.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Running, Writing, Eye

Ralph Waldo Emerson (2011). “Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.201, Penguin

Work and thou canst escape the reward; whether the work be fine or course, planting corn or writing epics, so only it be honest work, done to thine own approbation, it shall earn a reward to the senses as well as to the thought.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Honesty, Work, Writing

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870). “The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.565, Рипол Классик

The writer is an explorer. Every step is an advance into a new land.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing, Land, Steps

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Joel Porte (1982). “Emerson in His Journals”, p.561, Harvard University Press

It is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under other circumstances.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Inspiration, Passion, Writing

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1972). “Early Lectures: 1838-1842”, p.58, Harvard University Press

The way to write is to throw your body at the mark when your arrows are spent.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing, Arrows, Body

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1960). “Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks: 1841-1843”, p.400, Harvard University Press

We read often with as much talent as we write.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Reading, Writing, Talent

"The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson".

Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Birthday, Book, Writing

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.65, Penguin

Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Book, Writing, Men

Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1655, Delphi Classics

Every book is good to read which sets the reader in a working mood.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Book, Writing, Mood

Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2660, Delphi Classics

Good writing is a kind of skating which carries off the performer where he would not go.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing, Skating, Kind

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1992). “The Topical Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.180, University of Missouri Press

To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Stars, Writing, Men

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.9, Library of America

We write from aspiration and antagonism, as well as from experience. We paint those qualities which we do not posses.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing, Quality, Paint

Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.72, Graphic Arts Books

Writing should be the settlement of dew on the leaf.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing, Dew, Should

Ralph Waldo Emerson (2014). “The Portable Emerson”, p.384, Penguin

We postpone our literary work until we have more ripeness and skill to write, and we one day discover that our literary talent wasa youthful effervescence which we have now lost.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing, Skills, One Day

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1971). “The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude”, p.161, Harvard University Press

The maker of a sentence launches out into the infinite and builds a road into Chaos and old Night, and is followed by those who hear him with something of wild, creative delight.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Inspirational, Life, Writing

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt McLaughlin (2010). “The Laws of Nature: Excerpts from the Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.13, North Atlantic Books

Let the reader find that he cannot afford to omit any line of your writing because you you have omitted every word that he can spare.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing, Lines, Reader

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1959). “Emerson: A Modern Anthology”

The language of the street is always strong.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Strong, Writing, Language

Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “The Later Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1843-1871”, p.22, University of Georgia Press

So in writing, there is always a right word, and every other than that is wrong. There is no beauty in words except in their collocation. The effect of a fanciful word misplaced, is like that of a horn of exquisite polish growing on a human head.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing, Growing, Horns

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1992). “The Topical Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.376, University of Missouri Press