Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good.

That which we call character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means. It is conceived of as a certain undemonstrable force, a familiar or genius, by whose impulses the man is guided, but whose counsels he cannot impart.

There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.

Some natures are too good to be spoiled by praise.

Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. Many will read the book before one thinks of quoting a passage. As soon as he has done this, that line will be quoted east and west.

A man finds room in the few square inches of the face for the traits of all his ancestors; for the expression of all his history, and his wants.

A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.

Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.

I am not able to instruct you. I can only tell that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in study without experience; in the attainment of sciences which can, for the most part, be but remotely useful to mankind. I have purchased knowledge at the expense of all the common comforts of life: I have missed the endearing elegance of female friendship, and the happy commerce of domestic tenderness.

There isn’t a single human characteristic that can be safely labeled as American.

Do what we can, summer will have its flies.

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.

Beware what you set your heart upon. For it shall surely be yours.

The dead should be judged like criminals, impartially, but they should be allowed the benefit of the doubt.

Light is the first of painters. There is no object so foul that intense light will not make it beautiful.

An honest man is always a child.

A round man cannot be expected to fit in a square hole right away. He must have time to modify his shape.

Follow your own passion – not your parents’, not your teachers’- yours.

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.

The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.

We meet on the broad pathway of good faith and good will; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be openness and love. I will not call you children, — for parents sometimes chide their children too severely; nor brothers only, — for brothers differ. The friendship between me and you I will not compare to a chain; for that the rains might rust, or the falling tree might break. We are the same as if one man’s body were to be divided into two parts, we are all one flesh and blood.