Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is this to be said in favor of drinking, that it takes the drunkard first out of society, then out of the world.

A man’s style is his mind’s voice. Wooden minds, wooden voices.

Always do what you are afraid to do.

That which we do not believe, we cannot adequately say; even though we may repeat the words ever so often.

The world is his who has money to go over it.

Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.

Philosophers make imaginary laws for imaginary commonwealths, and their discourses are as the stars, which give little light because they are so high.

There are German songs which can make a stranger to the language cry.

We are always getting ready to live but never living.

We rarely find anyone who can say he has lived a happy life, and who, content with his life, can retire from the world like a satisfied guest.

The pen is the tongue of the mind.

Friendship . . . is an Union of Spirits, a Marriage of Hearts, and the Bond thereof Vertue.

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

When a man says money can do anything, that settles it: he hasn’t got any.

I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.

Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue, that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice.

Possession isn’t nine-tenths of the law. It’s nine-tenths of the problem.

It is better to walk alone, then with a crowd going in the wrong direction.

There are no conditions to which a person cannot grow accustomed, especially if he sees that everyone around him lives in the same way.

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

Part of her mystery is how she is calm in the storm and anxious in the quiet.