Ralph Waldo Emerson

In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.

That man is idle who can do something better.

The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it cannot be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but for deliverance from fear.

People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never.

Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

I shall not wholly die, and a great part of me will escape the grave.

The ship of heaven guides itself and will not accept a wooden rudder.

Friendship . . . is an Union of Spirits, a Marriage of Hearts, and the Bond thereof Vertue.

A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight.

Society therefore is an ancient as the world.

The mob is man voluntarily descending to the nature of the beast. Its fit hour of activity is night. Its actions are insane like its whole constitution. It persecutes a principle; it would whip a right; it would tar and feather justice, by inflicting fire and outrage upon the houses and persons of those who have these. It resembles the prank of boys, who run with fire-engines to put out the ruddy aurora streaming to the stars.

The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace.

It is a profitable Wisdom to know when we have done enough: Much time and Pains are spared, in not flattering our selves against Probabilities.

Less judgment than wit is more sail than ballast.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

For who is pleased with himself.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

He was dull in a new way, and that made many think him great.

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.

Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.