Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Genuine
Yes. In Essays: First Series (1841), Essay X, “Circles”.
Found word for word by program in the full text.
- Work
- Essays: First Series (Essays), 1841
- Where
- Essay X, “Circles”
- Found at
- Paragraph 422 of the text
Researched by AI; checked by program against the full text on 31 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
On the page
[…] Not if they still remind me of the black event. True conquest is the causing the calamity to fade and disappear as an early cloud of insignificant result in a history so large and advancing.
The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves, to be surprised out of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal memory and to do something without knowing how or why; in short to draw a new circle. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. The way of life is wonderful; it is by abandonment. The great moments of history are the facilities of performance through the strength of ideas, as the works of genius and religion. “A man,” said Oliver Cromwell, “never rises so high as when he knows not whither he is going.” […]
The scene
Near the end of “Circles,” an essay on how every achievement is only the rim of a larger circle that another draws around it. Emerson says what people most want is to be carried out of themselves, and goes on to say that the great moments of history come from the strength of ideas. He then warns that drink and opium are only a counterfeit of this state.
What it means
Real achievement needs a surrender of calculation and caution, a being carried by an idea.
Often misread
Used on posters as a plain tip to “be enthusiastic” at work. In the essay it is part of a claim about self-forgetting and abandonment, followed at once by Cromwell’s remark that a man never rises so high as when he does not know where he is going.
Topics
Related quotes
- To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. Oscar Wilde
- To be great is to be misunderstood.
- Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtues consistently. Maya Angelou
- Without deviation, progress is not possible. Frank Zappa
- No one can choose a beneficial direction in life without hope that change for the better is possible. William W. Purkey
Cite it
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: First Series (1841), Essay X, “Circles”. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/nothing-great-was-ever-achieved-without-enthusiasm/ (31 October 2026).
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Checked by people
People who checked this entry against its source, under their own names. Their checks do not change the verdict: an editor reviews every entry.
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