Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is no one who does not exaggerate!

Fear always springs from ignorance.

The two parties which divide the state, the party of Conservatism and that of Innovation, are very old, and have disputed the possession of the world ever since it was made.

Criticism should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and root-puller, but guiding, instructive, inspiring.

We rail at trade, but the historian of the world will see that it was the principle of liberty; that it settled America, and destroyed feudalism, and made peace and keeps peace; that it will abolish slavery.

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

I always forgive others. The anger; sadness; frustration; pain, whatever feelings I felt, no matter the hurt; the tears, I always found understanding and reason to forgive them; to not hold onto it; to not resent them. But there is one, who I never seem to be able to give absolution, and that’s myself.

Every burned book or house enlightens the world; every suppressed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side.

Man can climb to the highest summits, but he cannot dwell there long.

Sorrow is a kind of rust of the soul, which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour away. It is the putrefaction of stagnant life, and is remedied by exercise and motion.

The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered but a general effect of pleasing impression.

There is nothing to fear except fear it’s self.

You will find only what you bring in.

If he really thinks there is no distinction between vice and virtue, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.

Give no bounties: make equal laws: secure life and prosperity and you need not give alms.

Was there ever such an autumn? And yet there was never such a panic and hard times in the commercial world. The merchants and banks are suspending and failing all the country over, but not the sandbanks, solid and warm, and streaked with bloody blackberry vines.You may run upon them as much as you please – even as the crickets do, and find their account in it. They are the stockholders in these banks, and I hear them creaking their content.

Disappointment, when it involves neither shame nor loss, is as good as success; for it supplies as many images to the mind, and as many topics to the tongue.

If you follow reason far enough it always leads to conclusions that are contrary to reason.

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

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large mattertis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.