Ralph Waldo Emerson

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.

Good men must not obey the laws too well.

Raphael paints wisdom; Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it.

The power which resides in man is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.

Is the parent better than the child into whom he has cast his ripened being? Whence, then, this worship of the past?

Every mind has a choice between truth and repose. Take which you please you can never have both.

Man is the only animal which esteems itself rich in proportion to the number and voracity of its parasites.

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.

Every time I think I have reached the peak, I look up and see I still have a ways to go. But I look back and see just how far I have come.

He took off his hat and shook it (having hurried home as though his own coronation were waiting), and moved now with the slow deliberation of lonely people who have time for every meager requirement of their lives.

Self-suggestion makes you master of yourself.

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

Our humanity is a poor thing, except for the divinity that stirs within us.

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.

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

Courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.

Our minds want clothes as much as our bodies.

The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend.

All that appears is devoid of independent existence, just like a magical apparition or a dream.

Glances of true beauty can be seen in the faces of those who live in true meekness.

Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands. By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote.