Ralph Waldo Emerson

Some natures are too good to be spoiled by praise.

O friend, never strike sail to a fear! Come into port greatly, or sail with God the seas.

No man ever prayed heartily without learning something.

When we quarrel, how we wish we had been blameless.

Let us treat the men and women well: treat them as if they were real: perhaps they are.

The true artist has the planet for his pedestal; the adventurer, after years of strife, has nothing broader than his shoes.

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm

Pale death with an impartial foot knocks at the hovels of the poor and the palaces of king.

Our tastes greatly alter. The lad does not care for the child’s rattle, and the old man does not care for the young man’s whore.

Appearances matter – and remember to smile.

I feel nothing but the accursed happiness I have dreaded all my life long: the happiness that comes as life goes, the happiness of yielding and dreaming instead of resisting and doing, the sweetness of the fruit that is going rotten.

Mountains will go into labour, and a silly little mouse will be born.

Here there is no hope, and consequently no duty, no work, nothing to be gained by praying, nothing to be lost by doing what you like. Hell, in short, is a place where you have nothing to do but amuse yourself.

When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once.

Until we have seen someone’s darkness, we don’t really know who they are. Until we have forgiven someone’s darkness , we don’t really know what love is.

Seek not to be Rich, but Happy. The one lies in Bags, the other in Content: which Wealth can never give.

In all debates let truth be thy aim; not victory or an unjust interest; and endeavor to gain rather than to expose thy antagonist.

Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.

I really do not see much use in exalting the humble and meek; they do not remain humble and meek long when they are exalted.

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.