Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions, even though I long ago came to the conclusion that I was not a political person and could have no comfortable place in any political group.

I have never taken a job or done a job where I felt I needed to leave my conscience at the door. One of the the great things about not being in politics as a career is that I can do this job without thinking about my career. I can think about what we're trying to do, what we're trying to accomplish and what we're trying to leave.

But rarely have I made choices that made me feel I was really compromising what I believe.

My manner of thinking, so you say, cannot be approved. Do you suppose I care? A poor fool indeed is he who adopts a manner of thinking for others!

I don't want to regret doing something that I don't believe in.

A lot of Wynonna is what I wish I could be. I don't like confrontation. I'm pretty polite. But I think she's the side of me that, if I could be free, that's who I'd be.

Conscience gets a lot of credit that really belongs to cowardice.

And is he honest who resists his genius or conscience only for the sake of present ease or gratification

I'm a tough old broad from Brooklyn. Don't try to make me into something I'm not. If you want someone to tiptoe down the Barkley staircase in crinoline and politely ask where the cattle went, get another girl.

A complete man should need no auxiliaries to his personal presence.

Shame is the turnkey that keeps our evil desires in jail.

Only an arrogant man will claim to be independent of everybody else and be self-contained.

The price of being oneself is so high and involves so much ruthlessness toward others (or what looks like ruthlessness in our duty-bound culture) that very few people can afford it.

My dominion ends where that of conscience begins.

Anyone who wants to be truly free must be willing to stand alone in the truth.

I just want to do what I feel is right in my heart.

If you did everything your mind told you to do, you do some really strange stuff. You'll probably be in jail, you'll be in trouble. But, it's all about control. We all have to control our feelings. That's the thing that separates us from animals.

yeah me see myself as a revolutionary, would wouldn't want no help and imma take no bribe from no one and fight it single handed with music

My mother is a very fun-loving person. She has been through a lot in her life. She has had a couple of divorces. When I was in high school she was a single mother. That's when I learned to do my own laundry.

You cannot live your life other than walking in the truth. Your means are as important as your ends.

Every substance is as a world apart, independent of everything else except God.

I get worried for young girls sometimes; I want them to feel that they can be sassy and full and weird and geeky and smart and independent, and not so withered and shriveled.

A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince.

I won't lay down my principles for any kind of recognition or any kind of position or trying to be more famous. It's just not in me. I'd rather be a man. And then to have all this crazy stuff on my conscience.

I've always stood on my own two. I don't need a team. I don't do the entourage thing, 30 people. I don't do that. That's just not me.