Ralph Waldo Emerson

The German intellect wants the French sprightliness, the fine practical understanding of the English, and the American adventure; but it has a certain probity, which never rests in a superficial performance, but asks steadily, To what end? A German public asks for a controlling sincerity.

Tis very certain that each man carries in his eye the exact indication of his rank in the immense scale of men, and we are always learning to read it. A complete man should need no auxiliaries to his personal presence.

Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.

The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.

Men who for truth and honor’s sake stand fast and suffer long. Brave men who work while others sleep. Who dare while others fly.They build a nation’s pillars deep. And lift them to the sky.

Artists must be sacrificed to their art.

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity… The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.

All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.

We’re so infatuated with studying labels that we forget to read between the lines of one another.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lift human life above the level of farce and give it some of the grace of tragedy.

Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.

While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till grief be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.

The envious man grows lean at the success of his neighbor.

Our impartiality is kept for abstract merit and demerit, which none of us ever saw.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.

You live longer once you realize that any time spent being unhappy is wasted.

Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.