"I think all men know better than..." - Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson
I think all men know better than they do; know that the institutions we so volubly commend are go-carts and baubles; but they darenot trust their presentiments.
More by Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Universally, the better gold the worse man. The political economist defies us to show any gold mine country that is traversed by good roads, or a shore where pearls are found on which good schools are erected.”
“The wise man always throws himself on the side of his assailants. It is more his interest than it is theirs to find his weak point.”
“The men who carry their points do not need to inquire of their constituents what they should say, but are themselves the country which they represent: nowhere are its emotions or opinions so instant and so true as in them; nowhere so pure from a selfish infusion.”
More on Knowledge
“The scholar may lose himself in schools, in words, and become a pedant; but when he comprehends his duties, he above all men is arealist, and converses with things.”
“Man needs to know but little more than a lobster in order to catch him in his traps.”
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot.”
More on Action
“It pays no matter what comes after it, to try and do things, to accomplish things in this life and not merely to have a soft and pleasant time.”
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”
“Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”