Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is a certain satisfaction in coming down to the lowest ground of politics, for we get rid of cant and hypocrisy.

Cities force growth and make people talkative and entertaining, but they also make them artificial.

Genius Borrows nobly.

The next best thing to saying a good thing yourself, is to quote one.

Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.

That which we do not believe, we cannot adequately say; even though we may repeat the words ever so often.

Coal is a portable climate. It carries the heat of the tropics to Labrador and the polar circle; and it is the means of transporting itself whithersoever it is wanted. Watt and Stephenson whispered in the ear of mankind their secret, that a half-ounce of coal will draw two tons a mile, and coal carries coal, by rail and by boat, to make Canada as warm as Calcutta, and with its comfort brings its industrial power.

Perhaps man is the only being that can properly be called idle.

No man acquires property without acquiring with it a little arithmetic also.

Finish each day before you begin the next, and interpose a solid wall of sleep between the two. This you cannot do without temperance.

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.

There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice.

Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.

It is very natural for young men to be vehement, acrimonious and severe. For as they seldom comprehend at once all the consequences of a position, or perceive the difficulties by which cooler and more experienced reasoners are restrained from confidence, they form their conclusions with great precipitance. Seeing nothing that can darken or embarrass the question, they expect to find their own opinion universally prevalent, and are inclined to impute uncertainty and hesitation to want of honesty, rather than of knowledge.

I would have the studies elective. Scholarship is to be created not by compulsion, but by awakening a pure interest in knowledge. The wise instructor accomplishes this by opening to his pupils precisely the attractions the study has for himself. The marking is a system for schools, not for the college; for boys, not for men; and it is an ungracious work to put on a professor.

Be a little careful about your library. Do you foresee what you will do with it? Very little to be sure. But the real question is, What it will do with you?

Avoid popularity it has many snares and no real benefit.

As to the rout that is made about people who are ruined by extravagance, it is no matter to the nation that some individuals suffer. When so much general productive exertion is the consequence of luxury, the nation does not care though there are debtors; nay, they would not care though their creditors were there too.

When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity.

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker upon the planet. Then all things are at risk.

Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.