Society is a masked ball,
where every one hides his real character,
and reveals it by hiding.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Related topics: Wisdom Life Human-Nature Psychology Self Mask
Fear defeats more people than
any other one thing in the world.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson 
What lies behind us and what lies before us
are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Please sign-up for my Free Inspirational Daily Email on the form below.
People only see what they are prepared to see.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Whatever you do, you need courage.
Whatever course you decide upon,
there is always someone to tell you
that you are wrong.
There are always difficulties arising
that tempt you to believe your critics are right.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
When It's Darkest, Men See the Stars.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every wall is a door.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children,
to leave the world a better place,
to know even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived,
this is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are rich only through what we give,
and poor only through what we refuse.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
If the stars should appear
but one night every thousand years
how man would marvel and stare.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The reason why men do not obey us,
is because they see the mud at the bottom of our eye.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinions;
it is easy in solitude to live after your own;
but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd
keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
With the past, I have nothing to do;
nor with the future. I live now.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Little minds have little worries,
big minds have no time for worries.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
What you do speaks so loudly
that I cannot hear what you say.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
To be great is to be misunderstood.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
What you are comes to you.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Shallow men believe in luck.
Strong men believe in cause and effect.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
For every minute you remain angry,
you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The world is all gates, all opportunities,
strings of tension waiting to be struck.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The wise man in the storm prays God,
not for safety from danger,
but for deliverance from fear.
It is the storm within which endangers him,
not the storm without.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Cause and effect are two sides of one fact.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Why need I volumes, if one word suffice?
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Self-trust is the first secret of success.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The wave of evil washes all our institutions alike.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The invariable mark of wisdom is to
see the miraculous in the common.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Judge your natural character
by what you do in your dreams.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are other measures of self-respect for a man,
than the number of clean shirts he puts on every day.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wise men put their trust in ideas
and not in circumstances
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Win as if you were used to it,
lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wisdom has its root in goodness,
not goodness its root in wisdom.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
For everything you have missed,
you have gained something else,
and for everything you gain,
you lose something else.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Before we acquire great power
we must acquire wisdom to use it well.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
As long as a man stands in his own way,
everything seems to be in his way.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nothing external to you has any power over you.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
A hero is no braver than an ordinary man,
but he is brave five minutes longer.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Bad times have a scientific value.
These are occasions a good learner would not miss.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
There comes a time in every man's education
when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance,
that imitation is suicide,
that he must take himself for better or for worse as his portion.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The years teach much which the days never know.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every man I meet is in some way my superior.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
This time, like all times, is a very good one,
if we but know what to do with it.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Do not follow where the path may lead.
Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is the quality of the moment,
not the number of days, or events, or of actors, that imports.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
A great man is always willing to be little.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
To leave the world a bit better ...
to know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Music takes us out of the actual
and whispers to us dim secrets
that startle our wonder as to who we are.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Write it on your heart that every day
is the best day in the year.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
What we seek we shall find; what we flee from flees from us.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
We are wiser than we know.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Character is higher than intellect.
A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Who hears me, who understands me, becomes mine,
a possession for all time.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Always do what you are afraid to do.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Finish each day and be done with it.
You have done what you could;
some blunders and absurdities have crept in;
forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day;
you shall begin it serenely
and with too high a spirit
to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,
adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. -
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Trust your instinct to the end,
though you can render no reason.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Genius is the power to labor better and more availably.
Deserve thy genius: exalt it.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Great men or men of great gifts
you shall easily find,
but symmetrical men never.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Unless you try to do something
beyond what you have already mastered,
you will never grow.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
He who is not everyday conquering some fear
has not learned the secret of life.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
To know even one life has
breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
People seem not to see that
their opinion of the world
is also a confession of character.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
---------
Thank you for visiting: Society is a masked ball, by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Please sign up on the form below to receive
my Free Daily Inspiration - Daily Quotes email.
You can also search my large collection of Quotes and Sayings.
May the world be kind to you,
and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
All materials & writings are copyright ©. You may read about our disclaimer, our privacy policy, our copyright policy, terms of use, participation in affiliate programs, and the list of all our websites.