Ralph Waldo Emerson

It requires a great deal of boldness and a great deal of caution to make a great fortune, and when you have it, it requires ten times as much skill to keep it.

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

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

It the proof of high culture to say the greatest matters in the simplest way.

In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.

We fly to beauty as an asylum from the terrors of finite nature.

You affect your subconscious mind by verbal repetition.

The perception of the comic is a tie of sympathy with other men, a pledge of sanity, and a protection from those perverse tendencies and gloomy insanities in which fine intellects sometimes lose themselves. A rogue alive to the ludicrous is still convertible. If that sense is lost, his fellow-men can do little for him.

A friend who cannot at a pinch remember a thing or two that never happened is as bad as one who does not know how to forget.

Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.

Next to religion, let your care be to promote justice.

The faults of the burglar are the qualities of the financier.

Revenge is the act of passion, vengeance is an act of justice.

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, an they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.

The blunting effects of slavery upon the slaveholder’s moral perceptions are known and conceded the world over; and a priveleged class, an aristocracy, is but a band of slaveholders under another name.

Labor, if it were not necessary for existence, would be indispensable for the happiness of man.

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

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.

You are a constant. Forever in my mind; forever in my heart. It seems that most matter how much I try I can’t get rid of you. You are a thorn, stuck in deep; painful to remove, and even when I do, still I’ll bleed and feel the soreness. It will take time, but it will heal. No matter the pain, I will still dare to pick roses.

The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.

The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.