Ralph Waldo Emerson

Most of the shadows of life are caused by standing in our own sunshine.

What is the imagination? Only an arm or weapon of the interior energy; only the precursor of the reason.

There is always a best way of doing everything.

There is a certain satisfaction in coming down to the lowest ground of politics, for we get rid of cant and hypocrisy.

The key to every man is his thought. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.

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

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.

Accept your genius and say what you think.

Have the fearless attitude of a hero and the loving heart of a child.

There is in the act of preparing, the moment you start caring.

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them.

If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do.

When it comes to the point, really bad men are just as rare as really good ones.

The wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting.

It all depends on you. You can go on sleeping forever, you can wake up right this moment.

Of all virtues and dignities of the mind, goodness is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; and without it, man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing.

The less a man thinks or knows about his virtues, the better we like him.

The happiest part of a man’s life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.

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

A man of my spiritual intensity does not eat corpses.

Certainly, the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we’re so fond of it.