Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every mind must make its choice between truth and repose. It cannot have both.

As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.

Envy is the tax which all distinction must pay.

If a man knew anything, he would sit in a corner and be modest; but he is such an ignorant peacock, that he goes bustling up and down, and hits on extraordinary discoveries.

To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.

Our faith comes in moments… yet there is a depth in those brief moments which constrains us to ascribe more reality to them than to all other experiences.

Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can.

To be in time is to be asleep: to be awake is to be in eternity.

We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.

Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy.

It is long ere we discover how rich we are. Our history, we are sure, is quite tame: we have nothing to write, nothing to infer. But our wiser years still run back to the despised recollections of childhood, and always we are fishing up some wonderful article out of that pond; until, by and by, we begin to suspect that the biography of the one foolish person we know is, in reality, nothing less than the miniature paraphrase of the hundred volumes of the Universal History.

There is no chance, and no anarchy, in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere.

The boy gathers materials for a temple, and then when he is thirty, concludes to build a woodshed.

Though wisdom cannot be gotten for gold, still less can be gotten without it.

No matter how often you are defeated, you are born to victory.

If you want to get what you want give up being right.

Logic is a poor guide compared with custom.

I hate women because they always know where things are.

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

And deep in my heart. The answer, it was in me. And I made up my mind. To define my own destiny.

Do not bring people in your life who weigh you down. And trust your instincts … good relationships feel good. They feel right. They don’t hurt. They’re not painful. That’s not just with somebody you want to marry, but it’s with the friends that you choose. It’s with the people you surround yourselves with.