Ralph Waldo Emerson

A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.

Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret.

The intellectual man requires a fine bait; the sots are easily amused. But everybody is drugged with his own frenzy, and the pageant marches at all hours, with music and banner and badge.

Heroism feels and never reasons, and therefore is always right.

The pest of society are the egotist, they are dull and bright, sacred and profane, course and fine. It is a disease that like the flu falls on all constitutions.

Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.

What is so great as friendship, let us carry with what grandeur of spirit we can. Let us be silent, — so we may hear the whisper of the gods. Let us not interfere. Who set you to cast about what you should say to the select souls, or how to say any thing to such? No matter how ingenious, no matter how graceful and bland. There are innumerable degrees of folly and wisdom, and for you to say aught is to be frivolous. Wait, and thy heart shall speak. Wait until the necessary and everlasting overpowers you, until day and night avail themselves of your lips. The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.

History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme a lot

So different are the colors of life, as we look forward to the future, or backward to the past; and so different the opinions and sentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either side.

We are a puny and fickle folk. Avarice, hesitation, and following are our diseases.

Very few people can afford to be poor.

In the best, the friendliest and simplest relations flattery or praise is necessary, just as grease is necessary to keep wheels turning.

Clogged with yesterday’s excess, the body drags the mind down with it.

We are all alike, on the inside.

Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.

Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices.

If women were as fastidious as men, morally or physically, there would be an end of the race.

When a man is just and firm in his purpose, the citizens burning to approve a wrong or the frowning looks of a tyrant. Do not shake his fixed mind, nor the Southwind. Wild lord of the uneasy Adriatic, nor the thunder in the mighty hand of Jove: Should the heavens crack and tumble down, as the ruins crushed him he would not fear.

A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.