Quotations and Literature Forum

I'm looking for the location of this quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson: Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active; be energetic. Be enthusiastic and faithful and you will accomplish your objective. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

Where is it to be found?

Thanks!

Jesse Deloe

It's from Emerson's Essays: First Series (1841). Circles.
http://www.rwe.org/works/Essays-1st_Ser ... ircles.htm

Thanks for locating "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm"! I found it in a longer quotation attributed to Emerson, but that was not in the context of his essay "Circles." Here's the complete paragraph: "Enthusiasm is one of the most power engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. ut your whole sole into it. Stamp it with your personality. Be active; be energetic. Be enthusiastic and faithful and you will accomplish your objective. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."

Would I be right in thinking that only the last sentence is his?
Thanks!

Jesse Deloe

If you read the last paragraph of Circles, you will find your original quote:

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." Dreams and drunkenness, the use of opium and alcohol are the semblance and counterfeit of this oracular genius, and hence their dangerous attraction for men. For the like reason, they ask the aid of wild passions, as in gaming and war, to ape in some manner these flames and generosities of the heart.

I suspect your quote was a paraphrased version.

A friend posted to Facebook the "Stamp it with your own personality" quote. I quickly found the correct end of the quote, "Nothing great is ever achieved without enthusiasm." It's in *Circles* as you mention.

However, the rest of it is attributed to Emerson by many webpages. This confusion reminds me of the evil triumph quote that may or may not have been said by Edmund Burke. To see what I refer to (can't post links until my account has been active for ten days!) Google edmund burke evil triumph. It's the 'Disputed' section.

Phaedrus your comment here is the most authoritative on Emerson's quote. Do you have any advice on how to determine if Emerson ever said/wrote the rest of this quote? If he didn't do you know a good way to find when the misattribution started? THANKS!