Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.

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

Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.

Wouldst thou shut up the avenues of ill, Pay every debt as if God wrote the bill.

The compensations of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also, after long intervals of time. A fever, a mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss of friends, seems at the moment unpaid loss, and unpayable. But the sure years reveal the deep remedial force that underlies all facts.

If a man owns land, the land owns him.

Men are what their mothers made them.

If a diplomat says yes, he means perhaps. If he says perhaps he means no. And if he says no, he’s the hell of a diplomat.

In every author let us distinguish the man from his works.

When you’re first figuring yourself out, you care so much about what people think of you.

All styles are good except the tiresome kind.

Neither have they hearts to stay, nor wit enough to run away.

Life is measured by the rapidity of change, the succession of influences that modify the being.

Whenever you are sincerely pleased you are nourished.

We run to win, not just to be in the race.

What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?

I believe in things that are developed through hard work. I always like people who have developed long and hard, especially through introspection and a lot of dedication. I think what they arrive at is usually a much deeper and more beautiful thing than the person who seems to have that ability and fluidity from the beginning. I say this because it’s a good message to give to young talents who feel as I used to.

What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.

What is the matter with the poor is poverty; what is the matter with the rich is uselessness.

People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never.

Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions.