Ralph Waldo Emerson Rope Quotations

In America and Europe, the nomadism is of trade and curiosity.

The wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting.

The history of persecution is a history of endeavors to cheat nature, to make water run up hill, to twist a rope of sand.

Thought is the property of him who can entertain it, and of him who can adequately place it.

If the individuals who compose the purest circles of aristocracy in Europe, the guarded blood of centuries, should pass in review,in such manner as that we could, at leisure, and critically inspect their behavior, we might find no gentleman, and no lady; for, although excellent specimens of courtesy and high-breeding would gratify us in the assemblage, in the particulars, we should detect offence. Because, elegance comes of no breeding, but of birth.

Europe has always owed to oriental genius its divine impulses. What these holy bards said, all sane men found agreeable and true.

Europe extends to the Alleghenies; America lies beyond.

We go to Europe to be Americanized.