Ralph Waldo Emerson

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

Wherever there is power there is age.

The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.

No matter how often you are defeated, you are born to victory.

Flowers are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out-values all the utilities of the world.

We are ashamed of our thoughts and often see them brought forth by others.

Farmers are respectable and interesting to me in proportion as they are poor.

The great danger of conversion in all ages has been that when the religion of the high mind is offered to the lower mind, the lower mind, feeling its fascination without understanding it, and being incapable of rising to it, drags it down to its level by degrading it.

In statesmanship get the formalities right, never mind about the moralities.

You must often make erasures if you mean to write what is worthy of being read a second time; and don’t labor for the admiration of the crowd, but be content with a few choice readers.

Happiness is a perfume which you cannot pour on someone without getting some on yourself.

What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing about the origin and destiny of cats?

No matter how often you are defeated, you are born to victory.

We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.

People of great position are servants times three, servants of their country, servants of fame, and servants of business.

You live longer once you realize that any time spent being unhappy is wasted.

The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of an instrument.

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.

The poets aim is either to profit or to please, or to blend in one the delightful and the useful. Whatever the lesson you would convey, be brief, that your hearers may catch quickly what is said and faithfully retain it. Every superfluous word is spilled from the too-full memory.

Evil is like water, it abounds, is cheap, soon fouls, but runs itself clear of taint.

Bondage is… subjection to external influences and internal negative thoughts and attitudes.