Ralph Waldo Emerson

Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.

Genial manners are good, and power of accommodation to any circumstance, but the high prize of life, the crowning fortune of a man is to be born with a bias to some pursuit, which finds him in employment and happiness, — whether it be to make baskets, or broadswords, or canals, or statutes, or songs. I doubt not this was the meaning of Socrates, when he pronounced artists the only truly wise, as being actually, not apparently so.

In sculpture did ever anybody call the Apollo a fancy piece? Or say of the Laocoon how it might be made different? A masterpiece of art has in the mind a fixed place in the chain of being, as much as a plant or a crystal.

The moment we indulge our affections, the earth is metamorphosed, there is no winter and no night; all tragedies, all ennui s, vanish, all duties even.

I look on that man as happy, who, when there is question of success, looks into his work for a reply.

The results of life are uncalculated and uncalculable. The years teach much which the days never know. The persons who compose our company, converse, and come and go, and design and execute many things, and somewhat comes of it all, but an unlooked for result. The individual is always mistaken. He designed many things, and drew in other persons as coadjutors, quarrelled with some or all, blundered much, and something is done; all are a little advanced, but the individual is always mistaken. It turns out somewhat new, and very unlike what he promised himself.

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

America is another name for opportunity.

Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them.

I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water.

The hues of the opal, the light of the diamond, are not to be seen if the eye is too near.

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.

The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals.

The key to the age may be this, or that, or the other, as the young orators describe; the key to all ages is – Imbecility; imbecility in the vast majority of men, at all times, and, even in heroes, in all but certain eminent moments; victims of gravity, custom, and fear.

There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.

Human beliefs, like all other natural growths, elude the barrier of systems.

There is no chance, and no anarchy, in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere.

Gambling promises the poor what property performs for the rich, something for nothing.

There is no daily chore so trivial that it cannot be made important by skipping it two days running.

If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth.

A good conscience is a continual feast.