Ralph Waldo Emerson

His heart was as great as the world, but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong.

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.

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

No man ever prayed heartily without learning something.

I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.

If we want maturity, we have to be mature. If we want a nation that feels hopeful, then we have to speak in hopeful terms… We have to model what we want.

The man with a toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound. The poverty-stricken man makes the same mistake about the rich man.

Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society. Who shall say that this is not the golden age of mutual trust, of unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation to instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark: – I wasn’t worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions of dollars.

Are you using your pain as an excuse or as a source of strength?

Genius always finds itself a century too early.

To think is to practice brain chemistry.

Recognize the ego for what it is: a collective dysfunction, the insanity of the human mind.

Is not disease the rule of existence? There is not a lily pad floating on the river but has been riddled by insects. Almost every shrub and tree has its gall, oftentimes esteemed its chief ornament and hardly to be distinguished from the fruit. If misery loves company, misery has company enough. Now, at midsummer, find me a perfect leaf or fruit.

The power of love, as the basis of a State, has never been tried.

All misfortune is but a stepping stone to fortune.

A wise neuter joins with neither, but uses both as his honest interest leads him.

Knowledge and human power are synonymous.

The only reward of virtue is virtue the only way to have a friend is to be one.

New arts destroy the old.