Ralph Waldo Emerson

He who would be a man must therefore be a non-conformist.

Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated about among men of thought.

A sect or party is an incognito devised to save man from the vexation of thinking.

Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short, in all the management of human affairs.

Life is a series of surprises and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.

Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.

There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

Of all God’s creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with a cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.

Men on their side must force themselves for a while to lay their notions by and begin to familiarize themselves with facts.

That which builds is better than that which is built.

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.

Nothing makes a man so selfish as work.

I finished my first book seventy-six years ago. I offered it to every publisher on the English-speaking earth I had ever heard of. Their refusals were unanimous: and it did not get into print until, fifty years later; publishers would publish anything that had my name on it.

Common sense is the best distributed thing in the world, for we all think we possess a good share of it.

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.

Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Moms. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.

The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.

Eastward I go only by force; but westward I go free.

He that does good for good’s sake seeks neither paradise nor reward, but he is sure of both in the end.