Ralph Waldo Emerson

As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions. Our riches will leave us sick; there will be bitterness in our laughter; and our wine will burn our mouth. Only that good profits, which we can taste with all doors open, and which serves all men.

Society is infested by persons who, seeing that the sentiments please, counterfeit the expression of them. These we call sentimentalists – talkers who mistake the description for the thing, saying for having.

New arts destroy the old.

Our knowledge is the amassed thought and experience of innumerable minds.

Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner, or before taking their rest; when they are sick or aged. In the morning, or when their intellect or their conscience has been aroused, when they hear music, or when they read poetry, they are radicals.

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud.

We hate the kindness which we understand.

Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Best friends that pick wedgies together stay besties for life!

Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.

The thought of two thousand people crunching celery at the same time horrified me.

George Washington, as a boy, was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.

Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.

Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress.

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.

There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

To be a citizen in a democracy, a human being must be given a healthy start.

There is no daily chore so trivial that it cannot be made important by skipping it two days running.

Think of and look at your work as though it were done by your enemy. I you look at it to admire it, you are lost.