There can be no excess to love; none to knowledge; none to beauty, when these attributes are considered in the purest sense.

A young bamboo shoot growing among mature bamboo in soft morning light. — AI-generated editorial illustration · Quotations

What does this quotation mean?

From Compensation of Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Read the surrounding argument as well as the excerpt; its historical language and philosophical assumptions shape its meaning.

Sources and attribution

Verified

Source: Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson , Compensation

Edition: Edna H. L. Turpin selection

View reference ↗

From Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Excerpt checked against the linked public-domain English edition. Korean rendering and context note by Quotations; not an authorized translation. Historical punctuation is retained; line breaks and editorial footnote markers are normalized.

Suggest an attribution correction ↗

Keep exploring

QUOTATION Verified

but it’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.

— Lewis Carroll ↗

A river flowing around smooth stones beneath a willow at sunset.

QUOTATION Verified

She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it),

— Lewis Carroll ↗

An open book and a ceramic tea cup beside a garden window.

QUOTATION Verified

I dearly love a laugh.

— Jane Austen ↗

QUOTATION Verified

Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.

— Jane Austen ↗