Ralph Waldo Emerson

As soon as there is life there is danger.

The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast away our virtues, or what we have always esteemed such, into the same pit that has consumed our grosser vices.

The foundations of a person are not in matter but in spirit.

Knowledge comes by eyes always open and working hands; and there is no knowledge that is not power.

Society is a hospital of incurables.

Every burned book enlightens the world.

We must not inquire too curiously into motives… They are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light.

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.

There is no rule more invariable than that we are paid for our suspicions by finding what we suspect.

If all the economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies.

To have a great man for a friend seems pleasant to those who have never tried it; those who have, fear it.

All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man had taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first.

There are innumerable questions to which the inquisitive mind can in this state receive no answer: Why do you and I exist? Why was this world created? Since it was to be created, why was it not created sooner?

A man cannot speak but he judges himself. With his will or against his will he draws his portrait to the eye of his companions by every word. Every opinion reacts on him who utters it. It is a threadball thrown at a mark, but the other end remains on the thrower.

Every reform was once a private opinion, and when it shall be a private opinion again, it will solve the problem of the age.

But men must know, that in this theatre of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

Have good trust in yourself … not in the One that you think you should be, but in the One that you are.

It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘always do what you are afraid to do.’