Ralph Waldo Emerson

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.

Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.

Man was born to be rich, or grow rich by use of his faculties, by the union of thought with nature. Property is an intellectual production. The game requires coolness, right reasoning, promptness, and patience in the players.

I didn’t find my friends; the good Lord gave them to me.

Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.

It is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world owes the world more than the world can pay.

Nothing does more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.

I hold every man a debtor to his profession.

Thinking will not overcome fear but action will.

Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.

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.

The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.

I don’t think it’s meant for man to know everything at once.

Men have become the tools of their tools.

In the word of no master am I bound to believe.

The connection between us runs so strong and deep. It’s like a steel cable stretching across the ocean bed, so many fathoms below, that even the most skilled and courageous of deep sea divers cannot reach it to cut it. It remains strong, silent, invisible, invincible.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

Because they did not see merit where they should have seen it, people, to express their regret, will go and leave a lot of money to the very people who will be the first to throw stones at the next person who has anything to say and finds a difficulty in getting a hearing.

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.

There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy’s life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.

Turn on the prudent ant thy heedful eyes. Observe her labors, sluggard, and be wise.