Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is the imagination? Only an arm or weapon of the interior energy; only the precursor of the reason.

By persisting in your path, though you forfeit the little, you gain the great.

An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.

It is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world owes the world more than the world can pay.

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.

All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one… characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers.

I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.

The chief mourner does not always attend the funeral.

You are going to let the fear of poverty govern you life and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.

Don’t do or say things you would not like to see on the front page of The Washington Post.

Character is just another word for having a perfectly disciplined and educated will.

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

Pain never really goes away; you just elevate and get used to it by growing stronger.

Looking? Found someone you have, eh?

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.

Surrender is faith that the power of love can accomplish anything… even when you can not foresee the outcome.

Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.

Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.