Ralph Waldo Emerson

If a man will kick a fact out of the window, when he comes back he finds it again in the chimney corner.

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit.

Repose and cheerfulness are the badge of the gentleman – repose in energy.

A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

Fear always springs from ignorance.

All of humanity is living in a dream world, but suffering real consequences.

There is properly no history; only biography.

Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed.

The American Constitution, one of the few modern political documents drawn up by men who were forced by the sternest circumstances to think out what they really had to face, instead of chopping logic in a university classroom.

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.

I like to be beholden to the great metropolitan English speech, the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven.

When you know better, you do better.

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.

You must not suppose, because I am a man of letters, that I never tried to earn an honest living.

He is useless on top of the ground; he ought to be under it, inspiring the cabbages.

The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode.

We should come home from adventures and perils and discoveries with new experiences and character.

To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, an they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.

All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.

Speech of yourself ought to be seldom and well chosen.