Ralph Waldo Emerson

Approve

Opportunities to approve . . . worth.

Batten

Skeptics, with a taste for carrion, who batten on the hideous facts in history, -- persecutions, inquisitions.

Brave

Frog and lizard in holiday coats And turtle brave in his golden spots.

Churl

Your rank is all reversed; let men of cloth Bow to the stalwart churls in overalls.

Cit

Which past endurance sting the tender cit.

Codger

A few of us old codgers met at the fireside.

Constructive

The constructive fingers of Watts.

Convenance

And they missed Their wonted convenance, cheerly hid the loss.

Convoy

I know ye skillful to convoy The total freight of hope and joy.

When every morn my bosom glowed To watch the convoy on the road.

Covetous

Covetous death bereaved us all, To aggrandize one funeral.

Dame

In the dame's classes at the village school.

Decease

Inasmuch as he carries the malignity and the lie with him, he so far deceases from nature.

Deem

And deemest thou as those who pore, With aged eyes, short way before?

Determination

He only is a well-made man who has a good determination.

Dispart

The world will be whole, and refuses to be disparted.

Dive

He dives the hollow, climbs the steeps.

Dizen

To-morrow when the masks shall fall That dizen Nature's carnival.

do

You can not do wrong without suffering wrong.

Doff

At night, or in the rain, He dons a surcoat which he doffs at morn.

Don

At night, or in the rain, He dons a surcoat which he doffs at morn.

Dualism

An inevitable dualism bisects nature, so that each thing is a half, and suggests another thing to make it whole.

Earthly

Took counsel from his guiding eyes To make this wisdom earthly wise.

Embattle

Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world.

Enthusiasm

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

Equal

Whose voice an equal messenger Conveyed thy meaning mild.

Essay

Essaying nothing she can not perform.

Excuse

If eyes were made for seeing. Then beauty is its own excuse for being.

Extense

Men and gods are too extense; Could you slacken and condense?

Fat

Making our western wits fat and mean.

Flute

The redwing flutes his o-ka-lee.

Forfeit

To tread the forfeit paradise.

Forthright

They were Night and Day, and Day and Night, Piligrims wight with steps forthright.

Furtherance

Built of furtherance and pursuing, Not of spent deeds, but of doing.

Fury

The Furies, they said, are attendants on justice, and if the sun in heaven should transgress his path would punish him.

Groin

The hand that rounded Peter's dome, And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, Wrought in a sad sincerity.

Halfness

As soon as there is any departure from simplicity, and attempt at halfness, or good for me that is not good for him, my neighbor feels the wrong.

Heart

Hearts are dust, hearts' loves remain.

Hero

Each man is a hero and oracle to somebody.

Higgle

To truck and higgle for a private good.

Hyacinthine

The hyacinthine boy, for whom Morn well might break and April bloom.

Hymen

Hymen of element and race.

Intend

Let him intend his mind, without respite, without rest, in one direction.

Interrogate

Wilt thou, uncalled, interrogate, Talker! the unreplying Fate?

Kind

Here to sow the seed of bread, That man and all the kinds be fed.

Manner

Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices.

Marvel

Nature's sweet marvel undefiled.

Mourn

And looking over the hills, I mourn The darling who shall not return.

Mystic

Heaven's numerous hierarchy span The mystic gulf from God to man.

Nemesis

This is that ancient doctrine of nemesis who keeps watch in the universe, and lets no offense go unchastised.

Obligable

The main difference between people seems to be, that one man can come under obligations on which you can rely, -- is obligable; and another is not.

October

The country gentlemen had a posset or drink they called October.

Ope

Wilt thou not ope thy heart to know What rainbows teach and sunsets show?

Order

And, pregnant with his grander thought, Brought the old order into doubt.

Outlearn

Men and gods have not outlearned it [love].

Oversoul

That unity, that oversoul, within which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all other.

Paragon

The riches of sweet Mary's son, Boy-rabbi, Israel's paragon.

Plus

Success goes invariably with a certain plus or positive power.

Proof

It is no proof of a man's understanding to be able to confirm whatever he pleases.

Sallow

The sallow knows the basketmaker's thumb.

Saturate

Fill and saturate each kind With good according to its mind.

Scarp

Sweep ruins from the scarped mountain.

Scorn

And wandered backward as in scorn, To wait an aeon to be born.

Scot

Experienced men of the world know very well that it is best to pay scot and lot as they go along.

Senior

Each village senior paused to scan, And speak the lovely caravan.

Shaft

Bid time and nature gently spare The shaft we raise to thee.

Shoon

They shook the snow from hats and shoon.

Sidewise

I saw them mask their awful glance Sidewise meek in gossamer lids.

Simple

To be simple is to be great.

Sitfast

'T is good, when you have crossed the sea and back, To find the sitfast acres where you left them.

Slough

New tint the plumage of the birds, And slough decay from grazing herds.

Soothfast

I care not if the pomps you show Be what they soothfast appear.

Speak

each village senior paused to scan And speak the lovely caravan.

Spousal

The spousals of the newborn year.

Spry

If I'm not so large as you, You are not so small as I, And not half so spry.

Stanch

His gathered sticks to stanch the wall Of the snow tower when snow should fall.

Starkly

Its onward force too starkly pent In figure, bone, and lineament.

Stay

For flattering planets seemed to say This child should ills of ages stay.

Stenograph

I saw the reporters' room, in which they redact their hasty stenographs.

Strait

Too strait and low our cottage doors.

Subreligion

Loyalty is in the English a subreligion.

Substruct

He substructs the religion of Asia as the base.

Surcoat

At night, or in the rain, He dons a surcoat which he doffs at morn.

Sureness

The law holds with equal sureness for all right action.

Surplusage

A surplusage given to one part is paid out of a reduction from another part of the same creature.

Tarry

One tarried here, there hurried one.

Temperable

The fusible, hard, and temperable texture of metals.

Tend

There 's not a sparrow or a wren, There 's not a blade of autumn grain, Which the four seasons do not tend And tides of life and increase lend.

Tort

Yet holds he them with tortest rein.

Truck

To truck and higgle for a private good.

Uncle

Plain old uncle as he [Socrates] was, with his great ears, -- an immense talker.

Unforgettable

Pungent and unforgettable truths.

Unmeet

And all unmeet our carpet floors.

Votary

But thou, my votary, weepest thou?

Warble

And he, the wondrous child, Whose silver warble wild Outvalued every pulsing sound.

Waste

Ill day which made this beauty waste.

Weather-fend

[We] barked the white spruce to weather-fend the roof.

Welfare

In whose deep eyes Men read the welfare of the times to come.

Whereinto

The brook, whereinto he loved to look.

Whip

Whipping their rough surface for a trout.

Whippletree

[People] cut their own whippletree in the woodlot.

Wight

They were Night and Day, and Day and Night, Pilgrims wight with steps forthright.

Winsome

Still plotting how their hungry ear That winsome voice again might hear.

Wrinkle

Within I do not find wrinkles and used heart, but unspent youth.