Ralph Waldo Emerson

The history of persecution is a history of endeavors to cheat nature, to make water run up hill, to twist a rope of sand.

The power which resides in man is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.

Do not tell me of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong.

Culture is one thing and varnish is another.

That which we call sin in others, is experiment for us.

Some men are born to own, and can animate all their possessions. Others cannot: their owning is not graceful; seems to be a compromise of their character: they seem to steal their own dividends.

Be not the slave of your own past – plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.

There is not human being from whom we cannot learn something if we are interested enough to dig deep.

The connection between us runs so strong and deep. It’s like a steel cable stretching across the ocean bed, so many fathoms below, that even the most skilled and courageous of deep sea divers cannot reach it to cut it. It remains strong, silent, invisible, invincible.

A friend is one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues, and who can appreciate them in us. The friend asks no return but that his friend will religiously accept and wear and not disgrace his apotheosis of him. They cherish each other’s hopes. They are kind to each other’s dreams.

Hate has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet.

Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will.

They have a right to censure that have a heart to help: the rest is cruelty, not justice.

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

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.

The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.

The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.

I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.

Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

Our best thoughts come from others.