Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whatever limits us we call fate.

It requires a great deal of boldness and a great deal of caution to make a great fortune, and when you have it, it requires ten times as much skill to keep it.

The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low business-tone, avoids all brag, is nobody, dresses plainly, promises not at all, performs much, speaks in monosyllables, hugs his fact. He calls his employment by its lowest name, and so takes from evil tongues their sharpest weapon. His conversation clings to the weather and the news, yet he allows himself to be surprised into thought, and the unlocking of his learning and philosophy.

By his machines man can dive and remain under water like a shark; can fly like a hawk in the air; can see atoms like a gnat; can see the system of the universe of Uriel, the angel of the sun; can carry whatever loads a ton of coal can lift; can knock down cities with his fist of gunpowder; can recover the history of his race by the medals which the deluge, and every creature, civil or savage or brute, has involuntarily dropped of its existence; and divine the future possibility of the planet and its inhabitants by his perception of laws of nature.

Every man I meet is in some way my superior.

A man cannot speak but he judges himself. With his will or against his will he draws his portrait to the eye of his companions by every word. Every opinion reacts on him who utters it. It is a threadball thrown at a mark, but the other end remains on the thrower.

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.

Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time.

I’ve never any pity for conceited people, because I think they carry their comfort about with them.

Liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery.

Always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals.

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm

Be ever on your guard what you say of anybody and to whom.

It is seldom that the miserable of the world can help regarding their misery as a wrong inflicted by those who are less miserable.

Is the acorn better than the oak which is its fullness and completion?

To keep your secret is wisdom, but to expect others to keep it is folly.

Language is the dress of thought.

History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.

Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul.

Was there ever such an autumn? And yet there was never such a panic and hard times in the commercial world. The merchants and banks are suspending and failing all the country over, but not the sandbanks, solid and warm, and streaked with bloody blackberry vines.You may run upon them as much as you please – even as the crickets do, and find their account in it. They are the stockholders in these banks, and I hear them creaking their content.

My life has been one great big joke, a dance that’s walked a song that’s spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself.