Quotes About Reflection

Materialists speak of the power of people in masses—nations, societies, classes, institutions. Idealists speak of the power of individuals, measuring people by the strength of spirit they exude. According to idealists, mind is the fundamental reality—the ground of all being—and everything else is its reflection. Everything in nature is an expression of the universal mind.

I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I've eaten; even so, they have made me.

La persona debería aprender a detectar y observar ese destello de luz que atraviesa su mente desde adentro, más que el realce del firmamento de los bardos y sabios. Sin embargo, la persona desecha su propio pensamiento sin tomarlo en cuenta, porque es suyo.

But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime.

Time like space, is part of the permanent context of life. Time does not pass, we pass.

And, in fine, the ancient precept, "Know thyself," and the modern precept, "Study nature," become at last one maxim.

Lo que queda detrás de nosotros, y lo que queda delante, es poca cosa comparada con lo que queda dentro de nosotros.

The aspect of nature is devout. Like the figure of Jesus, she stands with bended head, and hands folded upon the breast. The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship.

I am hindered of meeting God in my brother, because he has shut his own temple doors, and recites fables merely of his brother's, or his brother's brother's God.

Why should I vapor and play the philosopher, instead of ballasting, the best I can, this dancing balloon?

1842  Son Waldo (age 5) dies of scarlet fever.  Journalist Walt Whitman (age 23) attends Emerson's lecture on poetry in New York City. In his report for the New York Aurora, Whitman writes that it was the "richest and most beautiful" lecture he'd ever heard. On the same New York trip, Emerson becomes godfather to newborn William James, son of his friend, Henry James, Sr.

Not in nature but in man is all the beauty and worth he sees

Life is a train of moods like a string of beads, and as we pass through them they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue, and each shows only what lies in its focus. From the mountain you see the mountain. We animate what we can, and we see only what we animate. Nature and books belong to the eyes

Go out of the house to see the moon, and' t is mere tinsel; {it will not please as when its light shines upon your necessary journey.

True love transcends the unworthy object, and dwells and broods on the eternal, and when the poor interposed mask crumbles, it is not sad, but feels rid of so much earth, and feels its independency the surer.

Ne te quaesiveris extra.

Over everything stands its daemon or soul, and, as the form of the thing is reflected by the eye, so the soul of the thing is reflected by a melody.

The ancestor of every action is a thought. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Don't choose the better person, choose the person who makes a better you.

In the words of a great writer, we find our own neglected thoughts.

The good are befriended even by weakness and defect. As no man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him so no man had ever a defect that was not somewhat made useful to him. ...Every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults...

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.

That which we object to in others is often experiment for ourselves.

The field cannot be well seen from within the field.