Ralph Waldo Emerson

Heroism works in contradiction to the voice of mankind and in contradiction, for a time, to the voice of the great and good. Heroism is an obedience to a secret impulse of an individual.

The eloquent man is he who is no eloquent speaker, but who is inwardly drunk with a certain belief.

The life of man is the true romance, which when it is valiantly conduced, will yield the imagination a higher joy than any fiction.

Go oft to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path.

A good indignation brings out all one’s powers.

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.

All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.

How real is any of the past, being every moment revalued to make the present possible.

It is hard to go beyond your public. If they are satisfied with cheap performance, you will not easily arrive at better. If they know what is good, and require it. you will aspire and burn until you achieve it. But from time to time, in history, men are born a whole age too soon.

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile – hoping it will eat him last.

God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.

We run to win, not just to be in the race.

He who has begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin.

Be yourself. Follow your instincts. Success depends, at least in part, on the ability to carry it off.

To have in general but little feeling, seems to be the only security against feeling too much on any particular occasion.

Speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.

What is Man? Man is a noisome bacillus whom Our Heavenly Father created because he was disappointed in the monkey.

It is generally a feminine eye that first detects the moral deficiencies hidden under the dear deceit of beauty.

We know there is intention and purpose in the universe, because there is intention and purpose in us.

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.

In the multitude of middle-aged men who go about their vocations in a daily course determined for them much in the same way as the tie of their cravats, there is always a good number who once meant to shape their own deeds and alter the world a little.