Ralph Waldo Emerson

I dip my pen in the blackest ink, because I am not afraid of falling into my inkpot.

A man’s wife has more power over him than the state has.

A great man stands on God. A small man on a great man.

Some of your grief you have cured, and lived to survive; but what torments of pain have you endured that haven’t as yet arrived.

The years teach much what the days never knew.

Is not every man sometimes a radical in politics? Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner, or before taking their rest; when they are sick, or aged. In the morning, or when their intellect or their conscience has been aroused; when they hear music, or when they read poetry, they are radicals.

I mean why should somebody go steal and break the law to get all they can when there’s always some law where you can be legal and get it all anyway!

Be ever on your guard what you say of anybody and to whom.

The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.

This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal.

A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.

Well, dinner would have been splendid!

You show your worth by what you seek! – Rumi

You must often make erasures if you mean to write what is worthy of being read a second time; and don’t labor for the admiration of the crowd, but be content with a few choice readers.

During my life, I have had a few nightmares which happened to me while I was wide awake.

Life would be tolerable but for its amusements.

Earth laughs in flowers.

A drunkard would not give money to sober people. He said they would only eat it, and buy clothes and send their children to school with it.

Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.

The hottest love has the coldest end.