Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let us, if we must have great actions, make our own so. All action is of infinite elasticity, and the least admits of being inflated with celestial air, until it eclipses the sun and moon.

All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients.

New arts destroy the old.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

The best lightning rod for your protection is your own spine.

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

Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.

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

This merriment of parsons is mighty offensive.

Doing as others told me, I was blind. Coming when others called me, I was lost. Then I left everyone, myself as well. Then I found myself, myself as well.

Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.

Do something every day that you don’t want to do. This is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.

The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.

I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board.

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.

Hate has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet.

Knowledge is more than equivalent to force.

Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few.

When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.

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.

Some look at things that are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not?