Ralph Waldo Emerson

Knowledge exists to be imparted.

A beautiful form is better than a beautiful face; it gives a higher pleasure than statues or pictures; it is the finest of the fine arts.

The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.

Our knowledge is the amassed thought and experience of innumerable minds.

People wish to be settled. It is only as far as they are unsettled that there is any hope for them.

Nature is full of freaks, and now puts an old head on young shoulders, and then takes a young heart heating under fourscore winters.

The greatest glory in living lies in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress.

He may justly be numbered among the benefactors of mankind, who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may early be impressed on the memory, and taught by frequent recollection to occur habitually to the mind.

Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderated use rather than total abstinence.

Haste makes Work which Caution prevents.

Nothing is more important than reconnecting with your bliss. Nothing is as rich. Nothing is more real.

Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined – to strengthen each other – to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories.

The perch swallows the grub-worm, the pickerel swallows the perch, and the fisherman swallows the pickerel; and so all the chinks in the scale of being are filled.

Men’s men: gentle or simple, they’re much of a muchness.

In the highest civilization, the book is still the highest delight. He who has once known its satisfactions is provided with a resource against calamity.

Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.

Nay, Madam, when you are declaiming, declaim; and when you are calculating, calculate.

You know you’re a success when you look at your kids and realize they turned out better than you.