Ralph Waldo Emerson

By persisting in your path, though you forfeit the little, you gain the great.

If there is any period one would desire to be born in, is it not the age of Revolution; when the old and the new stand side by side, and admit of being compared; when the energies of all men are searched by fear and by hope; when the historic glories of the old can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new era?

A man’s action is only a picture book of his creed.

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

Slavery is an institution for converting men into monkeys.

Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing.

It is not length of life, but depth of life.

The tallest trees are most in the power of the winds, and ambitious men of the blasts of fortune.

Poetry puts starch in your backbone so you can stand, so you can compose your life.

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God.

Nothing is more important than reconnecting with your bliss. Nothing is as rich. Nothing is more real.

Everyone should keep a mental wastepaper basket, and the older he grows, the more things will he promptly consign to it.

Why should we take advice on sex from the pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn’t!

I answer the heroic question Death where is thy sting? It is here in my heart and mind and memories

Love is only one of many passions.

The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing: age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing.

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

When one wanted one’s interests looking after whatever the cost, it was not so well for a lawyer to be over honest, else he might not be up to other people’s tricks.