Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be not the slave of your own past – plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.

Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

Do the thing we fear, and the death of fear is certain.

As the Sandwich Islander believes that the strength and valor of the enemy he kills passes into himself, so we gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.

In conversation the game is, to say something new with old words. And you shall observe a man of the people picking his way along, step by step, using every time an old boulder, yet never setting his foot on an old place.

Rarely promise, but, if lawful, constantly perform.

Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

Which is worse? The wolf who cries before eating the lamb or the wolf who does not.

Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self.

There is a certain satisfaction in coming down to the lowest ground of politics, for we get rid of cant and hypocrisy.

Best friend, my well-spring in the wilderness!

It is only through labour and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage; that we move on to better things.

It were better to be of no church, than to be bitter for any.

We are often deterred from crime by the disgrace of others.

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.

If you can’t get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you’d best teach it to dance.

Cruel with guilt, and daring with despair, the midnight murderer bursts the faithless bar; invades the sacred hour of silent rest and leaves, unseen, a dagger in your breast.

As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.