Ralph Waldo Emerson

The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.

He then learns that in going down into the secrets of his own mind he has descended into the secrets of all minds.

Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact.

Higher than the question of our duration is the question of our deserving. Immortality will come to such as are fit for it, and he would be a great soul in future must be a great soul now.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting – a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new.

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

I said there was nothing so convincing to an Indian as a general massacre. If he could not approve of the massacre, I said the next surest thing for an Indian was soap and education. Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run; because a half-massacred Indian may recover, but if you educate him and wash him, it is bound to finish him some time or other.

Any fool can make a rule, and every fool will mind it.

That man is rich whose pleasures are the cheapest.

We learn geology the morning after the earthquake.

I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.

The less you open your heart to others, the more your heart suffers.

Revolutions are always verbose.

For many years I was a self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rainstorms and did my duty faithfully, though I never received payment for it.

Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.

The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.

When the eye is not set on one leaf and you face the tree with nothing in mind, any number of leaves are visible to the eye.

The thirst for adventure is the vent which Destiny offers; a war, a crusade, a gold mine, a new country, speak to the imagination and offer swing and play to the confined powers.

Your mind will enchain you. Your heart will set you free.

All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients.