Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

What I must do is all that concerns me. This rule, equally arduous in actual and intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.

What I must do is all that concerns me. This rule, equally a

Summary

This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson highlights the importance of focusing on one's own obligations and responsibilities. According to Emerson, one should prioritize their own duties and tasks above all else, both in practical and mental aspects of life. This principle acts as a criteria to differentiate greatness from mediocrity. The rule is challenging because there will always be individuals who believe they understand one's duties better than themselves. Therefore, Emerson suggests that staying committed to one's genuine responsibilities is key to personal growth and achieving greatness.

Topics

Deception/lying

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

Liked the quote? Share it with your friends.

Random Quotations

I don't know how many more times I'll be in New England agai

I don't know how many more times I'll be in New England again. But I leave coach Belichick and those guys with a salute: 'I love you guys. I miss you. I'm out.

Time Love Thetimes

Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opi

Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing [a people] to slavery.

Thomas Jefferson

Slavery Oppression Tyranny

Anger rest in the bosom of fools.

Anger rest in the bosom of fools.

Anger

I shan't be pulling the levers there but I shall be a very g

I shan't be pulling the levers there but I shall be a very good back-seat driver.

Margaret Thatcher

Power

Happiness is ideal, it is the work of the imagination.

Happiness is ideal, it is the work of the imagination.

Marquis de Sade

Happiness

One hundred years ago, our fathers retired the gods from pol

One hundred years ago, our fathers retired the gods from politics. The Declaration of Independence is the grandest, the bravest, and the profoundest political document that was ever signed by the representatives of a people. It is the embodiment of physical and moral courage and of political wisdom.

Robert Green Ingersoll

I always said that if I could just find a guy who could chop

I always said that if I could just find a guy who could chop wood and had a nice smile, it wouldn't bother me if he was a thug or an aristocrat, as long as he was a good guy. And I've ended up with an educated thug.

Smile

Nobody, who has not been in the interior of a family, can sa

Nobody, who has not been in the interior of a family, can say what the difficulties of any individual of that family may be.

Family Individual Outsider

Science brings men nearer to God.

Science brings men nearer to God.

Men Science

I hope to make people realize how totally helpless animals a

I hope to make people realize how totally helpless animals are, how dependent on us, trusting as a child must that we will be kind and take care of their needs.

Hope

In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake hi

In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature Youth

I've been a pretty selfish mom and a very unselfish athlete

I've been a pretty selfish mom and a very unselfish athlete for about three years now and it's time to put my family first. It's probably time to move on.

Mom