Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is nothing capricious in nature and the implanting of a desire indicates that its gratification is in the constitution of the creature that feel it.

Democracy becomes a government of bullies tempered by editors.

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.

Every thought which genius and piety throw into the world alters the world.

Self-trust is the essence of heroism.

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

It is tact that is golden, not silence.

Make yourself necessary to somebody.

People are much more willing to lend you books than bookcases.

The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that ain’t so.

A woman’s heart must be of such a size and no larger, else it must be pressed small, like Chinese feet; her happiness is to be made as cakes are, by a fixed recipe.

The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.

Out of the unconscious lips of babes and sucklings are we satirized.

I finished my first book seventy-six years ago. I offered it to every publisher on the English-speaking earth I had ever heard of. Their refusals were unanimous: and it did not get into print until, fifty years later; publishers would publish anything that had my name on it.

In Boston they ask, How much does he know? In New York, How much is he worth? In Philadelphia, Who were his parents?

He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend; provided, of course, he really is dead.

He that gives good advice builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example builds with both.

Lilac anemone, paper petals, turning tentatively to face a pale sun opening to reveal a lightness of being, a flash of gold, a fresh resilience, contented silence, the dawn of a new day.

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.