Ralph Waldo Emerson

That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.

A man finds room in the few square inches of the face for the traits of all his ancestors; for the expression of all his history, and his wants.

But the lightning which explodes and fashions planets, maker of planets and suns, is in him. On one side elemental order, sandstone and granite, rock-ledges, peat-bog, forest, sea and shore; and on the other part, thought, the spirit which composes and decomposes nature.

In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

Wealth is in applications of mind to nature; and the art of getting rich consists not in industry, much less in saving, but in a better order, in timeliness, in being at the right spot.

The sons of Judah have to choose that God may again choose them. The divine principle of our race is action, choice, resolved memory.

We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten.

If it matters, it will hurt like knives or wrap and lift you in the most immeasurable joy. Or both. One thing is certain, you will feel intensely alive.

Revolutions are always verbose.

You must learn to drink the cup of life as it comes … without stirring it up from the bottom. That’s where the bitter dregs are!

Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

Better a broken promise than none at all.

That which is false troubles the heart, but truth brings joyous tranquility.

Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing.

Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it.

That old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do what is right.

The next best thing to saying a good thing yourself, is to quote one.

To be innocent is to be not guilty; but to be virtuous is to overcome our evil inclinations.

If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.