Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tis a rule of manners to avoid exaggeration.

Books are the best of things if well used; if abused, among the worst. They are good for nothing but to inspire. I had better never see a book than be warped by its attraction clean out of my own orbit, and made a satellite instead of a system.

Riding a horse is not a gentle hobby, to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. It seizes a person whole and once it has done so, he/she will have to accept that his life will be radically changed.

The soul of God is poured into the world through the thoughts of men.

No matter how often you are defeated, you are born to victory.

See only that thou work and thou canst not escape the reward.

Prosperity is the best protector of principle.

The one who cannot restrain their anger will wish undone, what their temper and irritation prompted them to do.

Not gold but only men can makeA people great and strong;Men who for truth and honors sakeStand fast and suffer long. Brave men who work while others sleep,Who dare while others flyThey build a nations pillars deepAnd lift them to the sky.

It is, I fear, but a vain show of fulfilling the heathen precept, Know thyself, and too often leads to a self-estimate which will subsist in the absence of that fruit by which alone the quality of the tree is made evident.

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.

Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

There is nothing more distressing or tiresome than a writer standing in front of an audience and reading his work.

It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.

It is not best that we should all think alike; it is a difference of opinion that makes horse races.

When a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people.

In every great time there is some one idea at work which is more powerful than any other, and which shapes the events of the time and determines their ultimate issues.

If all you can do is crawl, start crawling.

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.

Revolutions are always verbose.