Learning and personal development
Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: Every man I meet is my master at some point, and in that, I learn of him.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), Letters and Social Aims (1876), Greatness

Learning and personal development

What it means

Everyone we meet knows something we do not. The true scholar stays humble enough to learn from all of them.

About the author

Ralph Waldo Emerson — American philosopher (1803–1882).

Source and verification

Source
Letters and Social Aims (1876), Greatness
Reference
Ralph Waldo Emerson on Wikiquote
Checked
Wording and source taken from the sourced section of the author’s Wikiquote page, which cites the work given here (accessed 2026-10-11).
Copyright
Public domain: the author died in 1882.

The explanation above is ToDoMatriX’s own reading of the quote, not the author’s words.

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