Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.

The stupidity of men always invites the insolence of power.

It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘always do what you are afraid to do.’

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.

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

The worst of charity is that the lives you are asked to preserve are not worth preserving.

I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.

Our humanity is a poor thing, except for the divinity that stirs within us.

I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe. And that way the nation is moving, and I may say that mankind progress from east to west. We go eastward to realize history and study the works of art and literature, retracing the steps of the race; we go westward as into the future, with a spirit of enterprise and adventure.

Time dissipates to shining ether the solid angularity of facts.

As the births of living creatures, at first, are ill-shapen: so are all Innovations, which are the births of time.

I can live for two months on a good compliment.

Renunciation remains sorrow, though a sorrow borne willingly.

We are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.

We are prisoners of ideas.

One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.

I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me.

Nothing is beneath you if it is in the direction of your life.

People ignore the thing they have the most power over. I know so many people who will go to a protest and do something big on an issue. But they won’t deal with that issue in their home.

You always do what you want to do. This is true with every act. You may say that you had to do something, or that you were forced to, but actually, whatever you do, you do by choice. Only you have the power to choose for yourself.

A jest often decides matters of importance more effectual and happily than seriousness.