Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do that which is assigned to you and you cannot hope too much or dare too much.

A great man is always willing to be little.

The mob is man voluntarily descending to the nature of the beast. Its fit hour of activity is night. Its actions are insane like its whole constitution. It persecutes a principle; it would whip a right; it would tar and feather justice, by inflicting fire and outrage upon the houses and persons of those who have these. It resembles the prank of boys, who run with fire-engines to put out the ruddy aurora streaming to the stars.

There is also this benefit in brag, that the speaker is unconsciously expressing his own ideal. Humor him by all means, draw it all out, and hold him to it.

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.

The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until an equal mind and heart finds and publishes it.

There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that’s just a fact.

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

You have such strong words at command, that they make the smallest argument seem formidable.

Often the surest way to convey misinformation is to tell the strict truth.

Criticism should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and root-puller, but guiding, instructive, inspiring.

All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man.

He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else.

The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.

Pessimism is only the name that men of weak nerve give to wisdom.

I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.

If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written.

It is not best that we should all think alike; it is a difference of opinion that makes horse races.

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.

Originality is a device that untalented people use to impress other untalented people to protect themselves from talented people…

To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.