Ralph Waldo Emerson

The value of a principle is the number of things it will explain; and there is no good theory of disease which does not at once suggest a cure.

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

The rich mind lies in the sun and sleeps, and is Nature.

The more experiments you make the better.

People only see what they are prepared to see.

Every burned book or house enlightens the world; every suppressed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side.

I showed my appreciation of my native land in the usual Irish way: by getting out of it as soon as I possibly could.

Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

Men’s actions are too strong for them. Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the victim and slave of his action.

As the births of living creatures, at first, are ill-shapen: so are all Innovations, which are the births of time.

After a few months’ acquaintance with European coffee, one’s mind weakens, and his faith with it, and he begins to wonder if the rich beverage of home, with its clotted layer of yellow cream on top of it, is not a mere dream after all, and a thing which never existed.

Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.

Ahh, that mountain of self-discovery. Every time you have reached the summit, the clouds clear and you see there is still a ways to go. Don’t look up with thoughts of despair; thinking how much further do I have to go?! Take a moment and look back to see how far you have come. Don’t lose sight of your accomplishments, and focus on the continued commitment to self-discovery and development.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change thing I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

This is a fault common to all singers, that among their friends they will never sing when they are asked; unasked, they will never desist.

We have only now, only this single eternal moment opening and unfolding before us, day and night.

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

So much of our time is spent in preparation, so much in routine, and so much in retrospect, that the amount of each person’s genius is confined to a very few hours.

Work is always an antidote to depression.