Ralph Waldo Emerson

Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated about among men of thought.

If we live truly, we shall see truly.

The angels are so enamoured of the language that is spoken in heaven, that they will not distort their lips with the hissing and unmusical dialects of men, but speak their own, whether there be any who understand it or not.

Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense.

Men who for truth and honor’s sake stand fast and suffer long. Brave men who work while others sleep. Who dare while others fly.They build a nation’s pillars deep. And lift them to the sky.

Be true to your own act and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant to break the monotony of a decorous age.

With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.

Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.

Be careless in your dress if you will, but keep a tidy soul.

There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.

You perceive I generalize with intrepidity from single instances. It is the tourist’s custom.

Just do what works for you, because there will always be someone who think diffenrently…

The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.

The poets are only the interpreters of the Gods.

Often a certain abdication of prudence and foresight is an element of success.

Through want of enterprise and faith men are where they are, buying and selling and spending their lives like servants.

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.

Forget and forgive. This is not difficult when properly understood. It means forget inconvenient duties, then forgive yourself for forgetting. By rigid practice and stern determination, it comes easy.

Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.

Standing on the doorstep of desire, I hold this bouquet like a gun and these vows like a petition for the death penalty.