Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Essays: First Series (Emerson)

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More information about this quote

Topic

Being misunderstood

Author

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Source

Self-Reliance Essays: First Series (Emerson)

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1841 1840s 19th century

Occupation

Philosopher Writer

From

United States

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance." Essays: First Series. Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1841.

Current Citation

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance (1841)." The Portable Emerson, edited by Jeffrey S. Cramer. Penguin Classics, 2014.

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A quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson about being misunderstood: “Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras…”
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A quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson about being misunderstood: “Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras…”
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A quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson about being misunderstood: “Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras…”
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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The American Scholar

More information about this quote
Topic
Trusting oneself Believing in oneself
Speaker
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Source
The American Scholar
Medium
Speech
Language
English
Time
1837 1830s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "The American Scholar." Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College. 31 Aug. 1837, First Parish in Cambridge, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Current Citation

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "The American Scholar (1837)." The Portable Emerson, edited by Jeffrey S. Cramer. Penguin Classics, 2014.

Another quote from the 1840s

Not a "gay science," I should say, like some we have heard of; no, a dreary, desolate, and, indeed, quite abject and distressing one: what we might call, by way of eminence, the dismal science.

Thomas Carlyle

More information about this quote
Topic
Economics

Author

Thomas Carlyle
Language
English
Time
1849 1840s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Carlyle, Thomas [published anonymously]. "Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question." Fraser's Magazine, Dec. 1849.

Current Citation

Carlyle, Thomas. "The Nigger Question." The Works of Thomas Carlyle, edited by Henry Duff Traill. Vol. 29, Cambridge University Press, 2010.