Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.

A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.

The intellectual man requires a fine bait; the sots are easily amused. But everybody is drugged with his own frenzy, and the pageant marches at all hours, with music and banner and badge.

Those who live to the future must always appear selfish to those who live to the present.

People wish to be settled. It is only as far as they are unsettled that there is any hope for them.

Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy the mad daughter of a wise mother. These daughters have too long dominated the earth.

If you have nothing to say, say nothing.

When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.

Art is the path of the creator to his work.

The Country is both the Philosopher’s Garden and his Library, in which he Reads and Contemplates the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God.

A faith is a necessity to a man. Woe to him who believes in nothing.

To have a great man for a friend seems pleasant to those who have never tried it; those who have, fear it.

It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.

The first thing a great person does, is make us realize the insignificance of circumstance.

True godliness does not turn men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it.

Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.

Men achieve a certain greatness unawares, when working to another aim.

The way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.

Let your character be kept up the very end, just as it began, and so be consistent.