Ralph Waldo Emerson

Is the acorn better than the oak which is its fullness and completion?

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

Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience.

At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.

Not gold but only men can makeA people great and strong;Men who for truth and honors sakeStand fast and suffer long. Brave men who work while others sleep,Who dare while others flyThey build a nations pillars deepAnd lift them to the sky.

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.

It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.

Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy.

Nothing astonishes people so much as common sense and plain dealing.

The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

What we become depends on what our fathers teach us.

To succeed in the other trades, capacity must be shown; in the law, concealment of it will do.

That strong mother doesn’t tell her cub ‘Son, stay weak so the wolves can get you’. She says, ‘Toughen up, this is reality we are living in’.

We should always have three friends in our lives-one who walks ahead who we look up to and follow; one who walks beside us, who is with us every step of our journey; and then, one who we reach back for and bring along after we’ve cleared the way.

Anger is a brief lunacy.

We must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.

Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations.

Be virtuous and you will be eccentric.

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

The ear is the avenue to the heart.