Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests, and mines, and stone quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books. Hence, instead of Man Thinking, we have the book-worm.

The State must follow, and not lead, the character and progress of the citizen.

All mankind love a lover.

Happiness is a perfume which you cannot pour on someone without getting some on yourself.

I look on that man as happy, who, when there is question of success, looks into his work for a reply.

Flow with whatever may happen, and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.

Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten.

When speculation has done its worst, two and two still make four.

A jay hasnt got any more principle than a Congressman. A jay will lie, a jay will steal, a jay will deceive, a jay will betray; and four times out of five, a jay will go back on his solemnest promise.

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

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

He was doing missionary work. But from the outset he had little success in convincing his charges of their responsibility for a sin committed at the beginning of creation, one which, as they understood it, they were ready and capable (indeed, they carried charms to assure it) of duplicating themselves. He did no better convincing them that a man had died on a tree to save them all: an act which one old Indian, if Gwyon had translated correctly, regarded as “rank presumption”.

In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding.

I can live for two months on a good compliment.

The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.

A true friend is somebody who can make us do what we can.

Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound.