Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dear to us are those who love us… but dearer are those who reject us as unworthy, for they add another life; they build a heaven before us whereof we had not dreamed, and thereby supply to us new powers out of the recesses of the spirit, and urge us to new and unattempted performances.

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 ship of heaven guides itself and will not accept a wooden rudder.

Every calamity is a spur and valuable hint.

Tis very certain that each man carries in his eye the exact indication of his rank in the immense scale of men, and we are always learning to read it. A complete man should need no auxiliaries to his personal presence.

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

We have more than we use.

A joke, even if it be a lame one, is nowhere so keenly relished or quickly applauded as in a murder trial.

The method of nature: who could ever analyze it?

A true friend is somebody who can make us do what we can.

People have discovered that they can fool the devil; but they can’t fool the neighbors.

I have lived some thirty-odd years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.

We must train hard. It’s not about denying a weakness may exist but about denying its right to persist.

Be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

God enters by a private door into every individual.

My life is a struggle.

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.

Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence – neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish – it is an imponderably valuable gift.

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted… but to weigh and consider.

An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.