Ralph Waldo Emerson

If a man owns land, the land owns him.

The line of beauty is the line of perfect economy.

The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low business-tone, avoids all brag, is nobody, dresses plainly, promises not at all, performs much, speaks in monosyllables, hugs his fact. He calls his employment by its lowest name, and so takes from evil tongues their sharpest weapon. His conversation clings to the weather and the news, yet he allows himself to be surprised into thought, and the unlocking of his learning and philosophy.

If a man sits down to think, he is immediately asked if has a headache.

There is a crack in everything God has made.

We do not count a man’s years until he has nothing else to count.

Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.

It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.

The cross of the Legion of Honor has been conferred on me. However, few escape that distinction.

My facts shall be falsehoods to the common sense. I would so state facts that they shall be significant, shall be myths or mythologies. Facts which the mind perceived, thoughts which the body thought – with these I deal.

Sometimes too much drink is barely enough.

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

A jest often decides matters of importance more effectual and happily than seriousness.

Let us, if we must have great actions, make our own so. All action is of infinite elasticity, and the least admits of being inflated with celestial air, until it eclipses the sun and moon.

People of great position are servants times three, servants of their country, servants of fame, and servants of business.

Children are all foreigners.

Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right; decide on what you think is right and stick to it.

Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations.

It is interesting to observe with what singular unanimity the farthest sundered nations and generations consent to give completeness and roundness to an ancient fable, of which they indistinctly appreciate the beauty or the truth. By a faint and dream-like effort, though it be only by the vote of a scientific body, the dullest posterity slowly add some trait to the mythus. As when astronomers call the lately discovered planet Neptune; or the asteroid Astr.

Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we storm heaven itself in our folly.

A man is usually more careful of his money than he is of his principles.