Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is a festival only to the wise.

Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.

Be a little careful about your library. Do you foresee what you will do with it? Very little to be sure. But the real question is, What it will do with you?

The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight with a verse given in a happy quotation than in the poem.

The pest of society are the egotist, they are dull and bright, sacred and profane, course and fine. It is a disease that like the flu falls on all constitutions.

A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

Mental toughness is spartanism with qualities of sacrifice, self-denial, dedication. It is fearlessness, and it is love.

If you are good, life is good.

I have received no more than one or two letters in my life that were worth the postage.

Above anything else, I hate to lose.

Life is not a spectator sport. If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you’re wasting your life.

Every man will be a poet if he can; otherwise a philosopher or man of science. This proves the superiority of the poet.

There are many humorous things in the world; among them, the white man’s notion that he is less savage than the other savages.

You affect your subconscious mind by verbal repetition.

So different are the colors of life, as we look forward to the future, or backward to the past; and so different the opinions and sentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either side.

Coal is a portable climate. It carries the heat of the tropics to Labrador and the polar circle; and it is the means of transporting itself whithersoever it is wanted. Watt and Stephenson whispered in the ear of mankind their secret, that a half-ounce of coal will draw two tons a mile, and coal carries coal, by rail and by boat, to make Canada as warm as Calcutta, and with its comfort brings its industrial power.

Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.

No matter how much or how little I knew technically, I was able to get the best out of people I worked with.

In the long run you hit only what you aim at. Therefore, though you should fail immediately, you had better aim at something high.

Wisdom is better than silver and gold. I was hopeless, now I’m on hope road.

Every thought which genius and piety throw into the world alters the world.