Ralph Waldo Emerson

The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius; for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character.

A good indignation brings out all one’s powers.

The eyes indicate the antiquity of the soul.

Tis very certain that each man carries in his eye the exact indication of his rank in the immense scale of men, and we are always learning to read it. A complete man should need no auxiliaries to his personal presence.

The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor.

We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

If you weren’t such a great man, you’d be a terrible bore.

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.

Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.

To be candid, in Middlemarch phraseology, meant, to use an early opportunity of letting your friends know that you did not take a cheerful view of their capacity, their conduct, or their position; and a robust candor never waited to be asked for its opinion.

The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little.

When desire, having rejected reason and overpowered judgment which leads to right, is set in the direction of the pleasure which beauty can inspire, and when again under the influence of its kindred desires it is moved with violent motion towards the beauty of corporeal forms, it acquires a surname from this very violent motion, and is called love.

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

Attention and respect give pleasure, however late, or however useless. But they are not useless, when they are late, it is reasonable to rejoice, as the day declines, to find that it has been spent with the approbation of mankind.

The amount of people in this world who are here to do something great far outweighs the rest.

The human race afraid of nothing, rushes on through every crime.

One way of getting an idea of our fellow-countrymen’s miseries is to go and look at their pleasures.

You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

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