Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

A man cannot free himself by any self-denying ordinances, neither by water nor potatoes, nor by violent possibilities, by refusing to swear, refusing to pay taxes, by going to jail, or by taking another man’s crops or squatting on his land. By none of these ways can he free himself; no, nor by paying his debts with money; only by obedience to his own genius.

Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.

Mr. Emerson visited Thoreau at the jail, and the meeting between the two philosophers must have been interesting and somewhat dramatic. The account of the meeting was told me by Miss Maria Thoreau Henry Thoreaus auntHenry, why are you here? Waldo, why are you not here?

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.

The wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting.

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

Letters are like wine; if they are sound they ripen with keeping. A man should lay down letters as he does a cellar of wine.

The happiest part of a man’s life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting – a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.

Nothing is so exhilarating in life as to be shot at with no result.

The advantage of doing one’s praising to oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in the right places.

All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.

Seek not to be Rich, but Happy. The one lies in Bags, the other in Content: which Wealth can never give.

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’

Society always consists in the greatest part, of young and foolish persons.

People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.

There are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven’t started wondering about yet.

The most fatal disease of friendship is gradual decay, or dislike hourly increased by causes too slender for complaint, and too numerous for removal.