Ralph Waldo Emerson

Is not every man sometimes a radical in politics? Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner, or before taking their rest; when they are sick, or aged. In the morning, or when their intellect or their conscience has been aroused; when they hear music, or when they read poetry, they are radicals.

I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from.

Men’s actions are too strong for them. Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the victim and slave of his action.

Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

Oh man! There is no planet sun or star could hold you, if you but knew what you are.

There was never a century nor a country that was short of experts who knew the Deity’s mind and were willing to reveal it.

There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy’s life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.

Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.

And all the while I thought I was drowning, I was actually the one holding my head under the water.

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.

We must set up a strong present tense against all rumors of wrath, past and to come.

It is impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself.

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.

The triumphs of peace have been in some proximity to war. Whilst the hand was still familiar with the sword-hilt, whilst the habits of the camp were still visible in the port and complexion of the gentleman, his intellectual power culminated; the compression and tension of these stern conditions is a training for the finest and softest arts, and can rarely be compensated in tranquil times, except by some analogous vigor drawn from occupations as hardy as war.

The secret of culture is to learn, that a few great points steadily reappear.

Read your own compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.

You bring out the be(a)st in me. Polarized tension, a raw slash of claw, swathed softly in love. A peace of my mind in tumultuous chaotic razor-sharp clarity, impulsive wit to wisdom, mixing addictive shots of cocktail emotions in a full-spectrum experience.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

It is the only sensual pleasure without vice.

The Jews generally give value. They make you pay; but they deliver the goods. In my experience the men who want something for nothing are invariably Christians.