Ralph Waldo Emerson

In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise.

We are symbols, and inhabit symbols.

As soon as there is life there is danger.

Talent is commonly developed at the expense of character.

Every reform was once a private opinion, and when it shall be a private opinion again, it will solve the problem of the age.

When we quarrel, how we wish we had been blameless.

Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions.

The men who have furnished me with my greatest inspiration have not been men of wealth, but men of deeds.

The country life is to be preferred, for there we see the works of God; but in cities little else but the works of men. And the one makes a better subject for contemplation than the other.

One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

I have to live for others and not for myself: that’s middle-class morality.

Our best thoughts come from others.

You know about a person who deeply interests you more than you can be told. A look, a gesture, an act, which to everybody else is insignificant tells you more about that one than words can.

It is easier to stay out than get out.

I think that people just have this core desire to express who they are. And I think that’s always existed.

If it matters, it will hurt like knives or wrap and lift you in the most immeasurable joy. Or both. One thing is certain, you will feel intensely alive.

Wealth is in applications of mind to nature; and the art of getting rich consists not in industry, much less in saving, but in a better order, in timeliness, in being at the right spot.

A private Life is to be preferred; the Honor and Gain of publick Posts, bearing no proportion with the Comfort of it

If you protect a man from folly, you will soon have a nation of fools.

He that lives to forever, never fears dying.

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. They prefer suffering that is familiar to the unknown.