Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every man has his own vocation, talent is the call.

Blame is safer than praise.

The greatest man in history was the poorest.

Commerce is of trivial import; love, faith, truth of character, the aspiration of man, these are sacred.

The good rain, like a bad preacher, does not know when to leave off.

A man’s library is a sort of harem.

The seven deadly sins… food, clothing, firing, rent, taxes, respectability and children. Nothing can lift those seven millstones from Man’s neck but money; and the spirit cannot soar until the millstones are lifted.

The aim of spiritual life is to awaken a joyful freedom, a benevolent and compassionate heart in spite of everything.

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

There is no luck in literary reputation. They who make up the final verdict upon every book are not the partial and noisy readers of the hour when it appears; but a court as of angels, a public not to be bribed, not to be entreated, and not to be overawed, decides upon every man’s title to fame.

I can live for two months on a good compliment.

For Africa to me… is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.

Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they’re gone.

It is not length of life, but depth of life.

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.

Excellence must be pursued, it must be wooed with all of one’s might and every bit of effort that we have each day there’s a new encounter, each week is a new challenge.

A crime persevered in a thousand centuries ceases to be a crime, and becomes a virtue. This is the law of custom, and custom supersedes all other forms of law.

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.