Ralph Waldo Emerson

A beautiful form is better than a beautiful face; it gives a higher pleasure than statues or pictures; it is the finest of the fine arts.

The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast away our virtues, or what we have always esteemed such, into the same pit that has consumed our grosser vices.

There is no chance, and no anarchy, in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere.

Not gold but only men can makeA people great and strong;Men who for truth and honors sakeStand fast and suffer long. Brave men who work while others sleep,Who dare while others flyThey build a nations pillars deepAnd lift them to the sky.

Do not tell me of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong.

Knowledge comes by eyes always open and working hands; and there is no knowledge that is not power.

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

What provokes your risibility, Sir? Have I said anything that you understand? Then I ask pardon of the rest of the company.

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

Be a lamp, a lifeboat, a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.

Man gives every reason for his conduct save one, every excuse for his crimes save one, every plea for his safety save one; and that one is his cowardice.

We learned about dignity and decency – that how hard you work matters more than how much you make… that helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself.

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.

Sir, that all who are happy, are equally happy, is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisfied, but not equally happy. Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness.

I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life’.

As there is a use in medicine for poisons, so the world cannot move without rogues.

I am the captain of my soul.

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm

You sold me a dream and it shattered. I didn’t know how to put it back together again. So instead, I’m lovingly gluing those fragments anew with seams of gold, creating a vibrant new dream, rendering the broken strong and more than ever, breathtakingly beautiful.

Fearful of missing anything, he read on, filled with this anticipation which was half terror, of coming upon something which would touch him, not simply touch him but lift him and carry him away.