Ralph Waldo Emerson

One definition of man is an intelligence served by organs.

All history is a record of the power of minorities, and of minorities of one.

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.

If we live truly, we shall see truly.

The torments of martyrdom are probably most keenly felt by the bystanders.

I suffer whenever I see that common sight of a parent or senior imposing his opinion and way of thinking and being on a young soul to which they are totally unfit. Cannot we let people be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way? You are trying to make that man another you. One’s enough.

Softness has such a power to it. When you choose to soften into something, it relaxes, opens, tension releases. Stuck energy flows like blood coursing through veins, bringing much needed oxygen. Life force and warmth enters, connection is rekindled. Find the trust you need to allow softness in; it really is healing.

Pictures must not be too picturesque.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Think with your whole body.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

Commit a crime, and the earth is made of glass.

Say a word, say a thousand to me on the telephone and I shall choose the wrong one to cling to as though you had said it after long deliberation when only I provoked it from you, I will cling to it from among a thousand, to be provoked and hurl it back with something I mean no more than you meant that, something for you to cling to and retreat clinging to.

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

Mementos of this world, in which the things worth being were so easily exchanged for the things worth having.

To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.

There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

The traveler that resolutely follows a rough and winding path will sooner reach the end of his journey than he that is always changing his direction, and wastes the hour of daylight in looking for smoother ground and shorter passages.

Although the masters make the rules for the wise men and the fools got nothing, Ma, to live up to.