Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes on Youth (18 Quotes)

THE POET A moody child and wildly wise Pursued the game with joyful eyes, Which chose, like meteors, their way, And rived the dark with private ray They overleapt the horizon's edge, Searched with Apollo's privilege Through man, and woman, and sea, and star, Saw the dance of nature forward far Through worlds, and races, and terms, and times, Saw musical order, and pairing rhymes. Olympian bards who sung Divine ideas below, Which always find us young, And always keep us so.

America is a country of young men.

So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low, Thou must, The youth replies, I can.

The youth, intoxicated with his admiration of a hero, fails to see, that it is only a projection of his own soul, which he admires

Plants are the young of the world, vessels of health and vigor but they grope ever upward towards consciousness the trees are imperfect men, and seem to bemoan their imprisonment, rooted in the ground.

The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth . . .

To help the young soul, to add energy, inspire hope, and blow the coals into a useful flame to redeem defeat by new thought and firm action, this, though not easy, is the work of divine man.

I suffer whenever I see that common sight of a parent or senior imposing his opinion and way of thinking and being on a young soul to which they are totally unfit. Cannot we let people be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way.

The key to the age may be this, or that, or the other, as the young orators describe the key to all ages is Imbecility imbecility in the vast majority of men, at all times, and, even in heroes, in all but certain eminent moments victims of gravity,

Some thoughts always find us young, and keep us so. Such a thought is the love of the universal and eternal beauty.

Gross and obscure natures, however decorated, seem impure shambles but character gives splendor to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and gray hairs.

Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant.

The search after the great men is the dream of youth, and the most serious occupation of manhood.

Beauty is the pilot of the young soul.

Nature is full of freaks, and now puts an old head on young shoulders, and then takes a young heart heating under fourscore winters.

Striving is perhaps the one and only true elixir, for while we converse with what is above us, we do not grow old, but grow young.

It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, 'always do what you are afraid to do.'

Society always consists in the greatest part, of young and foolish persons.