"Every artist was first an amateur" — Ralph Waldo Emerson

If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise

Source: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-1793)

A man should have the fine point of his soul taken off to become fit for this world

Source: Letters of John Keats (1817-1820)

Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict

Source: Self-Culture (1838)

I count life just a stuff to try the soul's strength on

Source: In a Balcony (1855)

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

Source: Walden (1854)

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known

Source: The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)

Ralph Waldo Emerson Quote