Ralph Waldo Emerson

What your heart thinks is great, is great. The soul’s emphasis is always right.

Truth is the summit of being justice is the application of it to affairs.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — `Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

The torments of martyrdom are probably most keenly felt by the bystanders.

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

Health is the condition of wisdom, and the sign is cheerfulness – an open and noble temper.

If thou wouldn’t conquer thy weakness thou must not gratify it.

Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.

A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.

Every burned book or house enlightens the world; every suppressed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side.

The desire of advising has a very extensive prevalence; and, since advice cannot be given but to those that will hear it, a patient listener is necessary to the accommodation of all those who desire to be confirmed in the opinion of their own wisdom: a patient listener, however, is not always to be had; the present age, whatever age is present, is so vitiated and disordered, that young people are readier to talk than to attend, and good counsel is only thrown away upon those who are full of their own perfections.

Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions.

We do not learn by inference and deduction and the application of mathematics to philosophy, but by direct intercourse and sympathy.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting – a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.

Mysteries are due to secrecy.

It is easy to say how we love new friends, and what we think of them, but words can never trace out all the fibers that knit us to the old.

It is in these acts called trivialities that the seeds of joy are forever wasted, until men and women look round with haggard faces at the devastation their own waste has made, and say, the earth bears no harvest of sweetness – calling their denial knowledge.

Poverty is often concealed in splendor, and often in extravagance. It is the task of many people to conceal their neediness from others. Consequently they support themselves by temporary means, and everyday is lost in contriving for tomorrow.

If you try to please everybody, somebody’s not going to like it.

Poetry puts starch in your backbone so you can stand, so you can compose your life.

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.