Ralph Waldo Emerson

Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession.

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself; nothing, but the triumph of principles.

Be an opener of doors.

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.

In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs.

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.

The man is either mad, or he is making verses.

Time is but the stream I go fishing in. I drink at it, but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. It’s thin current slides away, but eternity remains.

Logic is like the sword

Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.

The miracles of genius always rest on profound convictions which refuse to be analyzed.

Learn to say “I don’t know.” If used when appropriate, it will be often.

I could not find the world if I searched ten years. I’ve forgotten the road by which I came.

We do not count a man’s years until he has nothing else to count.

Democracy becomes a government of bullies tempered by editors.

Go oft to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path.

Make a good use of the present.

In all evils which admits a remedy, impatience should be avoided, because it wastes the time and attention in complaints which, if properly applied, might remove the cause.

It is easy to live for others, everybody does. I call on you to live for yourselves.