A Selection of Epigrams from Emerson's Writings

• To be great is to be misunderstood.

• For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure.

• If you would lift me you must be on higher ground.

• Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

• The greatest man in history was the poorest.

• The powers of the soul are commensurate with its needs.

• Have the courage not to adopt another's courage.

• Every spirit makes its house, but afterwards the house confines the spirit.

• Men live on the brink of mysteries and harmonies into which they can never enter, and with their hand on the doorlatch they die outside.

• We are taught by great actions that the universe is the property of every individual in it.

• Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.