Ralph Waldo Emerson

Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

We boast our emancipation from many superstitions; but if we have broken any idols, it is through a transfer of idolatry.

The secret in education lies in respecting the student.

To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs.

Courage consists in equality to the problem before us.

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.

Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.

To delay justice, is injustice.

I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.

We perceive and are affected by changes too subtle to be described.

The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.

You must avoid sloth, that wicked siren.

Esther liked books out where everyone could see them, a sort of graphic index to the intricate labyrinth of her mind arrayed to impress the most casual guest, a system of immediate introduction which she had found to obtain in a number of grimy intellectual households in Greenwich Village.

You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.

We hate the kindness which we understand.

Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible.

If you have knowledge, let others light their candles with it.

The foolish are like ripples on water, For whatsoever they do is quickly effaced; But the righteous are like carvings upon stone, For their smallest act is durable.

Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.