13 Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson That Will Change the Way You Think
They will open your heart and mind to the beauty and power within you.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was a poet, lecturer, and philosopher. He was and still is one of the most influential writers and thinkers of the 19th century.
He was an honourable man who advocated for the abolition of slavery. His work emphasized the importance of compassion, self-awareness, and spiritual transcendence in everyday life, and suggested that the purpose of life is not to be happy but to be useful.
Here are 13 of his quotes that will change the way you think. They will open your heart and mind to the beauty and power within you, and inspire you to live a life that is true to who you are.
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
I believe that fullness in life comes from following our calling. It’s that restless voice within us that urges us to shun aside the societal pressure of narrow thinking in exchange for the exploration of what could be. It’s our light that we were born to light up the world with. It’s our purpose — our contribution to the world that we alone have the potential to create.
In the quote above, Emerson answers the question that so many of us struggle with in life: Do I continue to tread along a safe path that has been laid out, or do I follow my heart and swerve onto a riskier road much less travelled?
I struggled with this dilemma for years, especially in the last few as I found myself troubled, unmotivated by the work I was doing. Despite working at the world’s number one company and living an excellent lifestyle, I felt like my life was devoid of meaning. The path ahead of me was so clear, so structured — but I wasn’t interested in it. I wanted to try and create my own path instead.
So I decided to follow my heart. I quit my job. I travelled for a few months. I invested my savings and launched a company. I endured a lot of financial and emotional trouble and I had no idea what I was doing. But I grew, and through that new path of creation, I transformed.
There was no plan, no certainty, and surely, no comfort. But one thing led to another. With every closed door, a new one revealed itself to me. I kept on opening new ones, listening to the voice inside me urging me to carry on. And in time, my calling presented itself to me: writing.
And so, today, I write.
I wouldn’t have come to discover this, had I not found the courage to go where there is no path, to follow my heart and will, to carve out a path that I could call my own.
J.K. Rowling created her own path through her imagination, today she’s left a trail of wizards and magic. Picasso created his own path through his paintbrush, today he’s left a trail of Cubism and art movements. I am creating my own path through my words, and I hope to leave a trail... but now it’s your turn. If you don’t find meaning in what you do, then you need to lean into your heart and listen, to light that spark and start carving your own path so you can leave a trail for the world to follow.
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
Emerson empowers us to be ourselves in a world that’s constantly trying to make us something else. And he does so because of his belief that there’s nothing more peaceful to your soul than the sheer act of being authentic to who you are and who you want to be. It's a gift many of us fail to honour. And it goes back to the earlier quote — will you follow a path or walk your own?
I gave myself permission to discover who I want to be and what I want to contribute to this world — even if it meant that I will be misunderstood by those around me. I took a chance, and it led me somewhere beautiful. Give yourself permission to do the same. The moment you do, you will sigh with relief — that’s the toxic air of the self-imposed pressure you had long-held within finally leaving your troubled soul. As Emerson wrote:
“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself… To be great is to be misunderstood.”
The reality of life is this: There’s a world out there trying to tell you who you are and what you should be, and there’s a world in you trying to tell you who you are and what you must be. Choose to lean into who you must be. This authenticity will fill you with a tremendous appetite for more self-love and it will be the first step in living a life that’s true to you.
“Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one’s own sunshine.”
And in order to be yourself, you must step out of your own sunshine.
Self-sabotage is one of the main reasons we fail to achieve anything in life, and it’s nothing more than repeated patterns of unconscious behaviour.
Anytime I made excessive amounts of money I would drag myself back into debt. It happened three times in my twenties. Anytime I would start a project, I would abandon it after a few months. It happened four times already.
And then I realized this: We go about chasing new goals, but we never take the take time to understand why we failed to achieve previous goals in the first place. Often, it’s because of our self-sabotaging unconscious behavioural patterns.
If you don’t understand why you couldn’t build a writing habit, you’re bound to fall short the second time. If you don’t know why you failed to get out of financial debt the first time, you’re bound for disappointment the second time. You’ll continue to make the same mistakes over again, and the only way to stop it is to reflect on your behavioural patterns, address the root unconscious needs that are triggering them, and overcome them.
Change your identity to kill the limiting beliefs that are holding you back, build better habits, practice self-care, let go of your imaginative fears and inner-critic, meditate on more empowering affirmations — that’s the secret to getting out of your own sunshine.
“A man is what he thinks about all day long.”
All great thinkers, philosophers, and achievers have echoed the idea that you resemble your thoughts. James Allen wrote, “as he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains;” Marcus Aurelius wrote, “a man’s life is what his thoughts make of it;” and Eal Nightingale: “We become what we think about.”
For years I boasted on my inability to commit to anything. I unconsciously became my thoughts by failing to commit to any project or relationship I was involved in. I let my limiting beliefs hold me back because it was all I thought about — my thoughts created my reality, and my actions validated it.
Change your thoughts and how you think about them, and you will change your life because as per Emerson’s words: “The ancestor of every action is a thought.”
“What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”
Ideas are worthless if we don’t act on them. And as “The Thinker” has taught me: Overthinking can drain our energy and paralyze us into inaction.
Sometimes, the best way of getting out of the repetitive chatter of the thoughts in our mind is to simply take one small action. You begin writing a book with one line, and then you write another. You begin painting a canvas with one single stroke of a brush, and then you do it again. Remember this rule of life: Action brings more clarity than thought.
We learn by doing. We get clarity by doing. We find the answers by doing. So be not a thinker; be a doer, who thinks. Let your actions speak louder than what you say.
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
I love this quote. It’s a reminder to all of us that happiness is not the purpose of life. The purpose of life is to live it well by simply being useful, honourable, and compassionate. That’s it. By doing those three things, you are making a positive difference and contributing to your world.
Unfortunately, this is something our culture fails to understand. Perhaps it’s how advertising portrays happiness — as a moment we must chase. We can open it in a can of coke, we can drive it in a Mercedes, or we can experience on a tropical island abroad.
But happiness is not something you chase; happiness is something you become. And you become a happy person by being useful, honourable, and compassionate — by contributing to the world more than you take from it.
I write encouraging uplifting words for those who need to hear it — that’s how I make myself useful. I give my friends and family the time and attention they deserve to help them solve their problems — that’s how I practice compassion. So look around you and ask yourself: “How can I be useful? How can I contribute? Who needs help?” Stop chasing and start living.
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
You set the tone for your life. What you experience in life is simply a reflection of your energy, attitude, and perspective. If you decide to honour yourself as a writer by showing up every day with a positive attitude and write, then you are destined to become a great writer. If you decide to honour yourself as a runner by showing up every day with a positive attitude and run, then you are destined to become a great runner.
You decide who you are destined to become.
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”
Wake up and be grateful that you are still alive. Go to sleep and be grateful that you have lived another day.
If you want it to be miserable, then miserable you shall be. But if you “write it in your heart that” today, tomorrow and the day after will all be “the best day in the year,” then today, tomorrow and the day after will be just that.
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air… It is not the length of life, but the depth.”
Slow down. Why are you rushing? And where are you rushing to?
We live at an age of time where people take pride in their ability to hustle. We’re encouraged to have side-hustles. People self-proclaim to be hustlers. Living fast has become a new way of life as we’ve grown accustomed to an on-demand-I-want-it-now lifestyle.
Instant movies. Instant food delivery. Instant shopping. All our desires are a swipe or click away. But what good has that brought? Stress levels are at an all-time high. 6 in 10 workers experience stress. People are burning out of exhaustion.
So slow down. Why are you rushing? And where are you rushing to? There is nowhere to “arrive to.” You are here, right now, and this is exactly where you need to be. Breathe. Open your eyes. Look around you. Feel the warmth of the sun on your face. Taste the saltiness of the sea. Gaze at the beauty of the world that lives around you. Learn to live slow.
Open your eyes to see what can only be felt with the heart, and you’ll taste the beauty of living slow.
I spent my twenties living fast and chasing happiness. I set unrealistic goals, I pushed myself too hard — I hustled — and eventually, I hit burnout.
That’s when I decided this: I will stop living fast, and I will start living slow. And I built a conscious habit of living slow by beginning to fully see what can only be felt with the heart: the music in the sounds of chirping birds, the joy of sitting around a dinner table with your friends, the beauty of a sinking sunset.
As Emerson wrote, “adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.” Seek depth and meaning in life, not length and vanity.
“When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.”
We so often associate darkness with evil. But when you think about it, one can only see the stars when it’s dark enough.
This quote reminds me of what Rumi wrote: “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” And what both poets are saying is that while we all experience pain, sorrow, and misfortunate in life, we must not let ourselves fall blind in the moment’s darkness and dwell in self-pity but rather allow the light to enter us and show us all that we cannot see.
So open your eyes and look for the stars in your life; they can only be seen in dark times.
“Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.”
Fear is a four-letter word that can paralyze you and rob you of your biggest gift in life: your potential. Fear is what stops us in our tracks. Fear is what defeats us.
Fear is an instinct and it only arises for things we truly care for. We might not be able to run away from fear, but we sure can decide not to hide from it — we can decide to conquer it. Here’s how: You take an act of courage in the direction of your biggest fear. Then you take another. And another. That’s how you become fearless.
You conquer your biggest fear once, you end up learning how to conquer all your fears forever. As Emerson explains: “Always, always, always, always, always do what you are afraid to do. Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.”
We usually face six irrational fears that hold us back from creating the life we want. I hope you choose to lean into your biggest one, so that you are not defeated by it, but rather you are the defeater of it.
“Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.”
Don’t take yourself or life too seriously. Learn to give more than you take, learn to smile more than you frown, learn to laugh more than you worry, learn to love more than you hate, and you will live a great life.
One of my mottos of life is this:
I don’t take life seriously; I take serious moments in life seriously.
I try things. I break things. I make mistakes. I take action. I do what makes me afraid. Because you know what? Life is just an experiment — and I want it to be the biggest, boldest, most badass, wild, fun and exciting experiment I could’ve ever lived so that in twenty years I can look back and say: “I’m glad I did.”
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