# Ralph Waldo Emerson's best quotes (with their source)

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds", the "transparent eye-ball" of Nature and "the shot heard round the world": the most quoted lines of Ralph Waldo Emerson, from his essays, lectures, poems and journals, each with its source.

- 218 votes · 18 items
- Sep 26, 2021 · Courtney R.
- https://even.best/en/l/5138/ralph-waldo-emerson-s-best-quotes-with-their-source

## Top 18

1. **A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.** (17 · ▲17 ▼0) — "Self-Reliance" (1841).
2. **I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all.** (15 · ▲15 ▼0) — Nature (1836).
3. **Here once the embattled farmers stood, / And fired the shot heard round the world.** (15 · ▲15 ▼0) — "Concord Hymn" (1837).
4. **The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity.** (15 · ▲15 ▼0) — Divinity School Address (1838).
5. **Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.** (12 · ▲13 ▼1) — Letters and Social Aims (1876), "Social Aims".
6. **Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.** (11 · ▲13 ▼2) — Journals, 8 November 1838.
7. **All is riddle, and the key to a riddle is another riddle.** (11 · ▲12 ▼1) — The Conduct of Life (1860), "Illusions".
8. **Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact.** (9 · ▲11 ▼2) — Nature (1836), "Language".
9. **I hate quotation. Tell me what you know.** (8 · ▲10 ▼2) — Journals, May 1849.
10. **If eyes were made for seeing, / Then beauty is its own excuse for being.** (7 · ▲11 ▼4) — "The Rhodora" (1847).
11. **Life is our dictionary.** (7 · ▲11 ▼4) — "The American Scholar" (1837), par. 29.
12. **We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds.** (7 · ▲8 ▼1) — "The American Scholar" (1837), par. 43.
13. **To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.** (7 · ▲8 ▼1) — Journals, 20 December 1822.
14. **Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis.** (5 · ▲9 ▼4) — Journals, 1836.
15. **Things are in the saddle, / And ride mankind.** (5 · ▲7 ▼2) — "Ode, Inscribed to W. H. Channing" (1847).
16. **Money often costs too much.** (4 · ▲6 ▼2) — The Conduct of Life (1860), "Wealth".
17. **Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests and mines and stone-quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.** (3 · ▲6 ▼3) — Letters and Social Aims (1876), "Quotation and Originality".
18. **The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — The Conduct of Life (1860), "Worship".

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.