What Does Ralph Waldo Emerson Have to Say About Success and Goals?
Ralph Waldo Emerson was a great American essayist, philosopher, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early 19th century. His teachings directly influenced the growing New Thought movement of the mid 1800s. Here are just a few of his many quotes about success and goals:
A strenuous soul hates cheap success. Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. If man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles, or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad, hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods. Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is to you. Often a certain abdication of prudence and foresight is an element of success. The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going. There is no way to success in art but to take off your coat, grind paint, and work like a digger on the railroad, all day and every day. To achieve happiness, we should make certain that we are never without an important goal. To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. We aim above the mark to hit the mark.