Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist.

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.

The State must follow, and not lead, the character and progress of the citizen.

All mankind love a lover.

Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.

All history is a record of the power of minorities, and of minorities of one.

Gross and obscure natures, however decorated, seem impure shambles; but character gives splendor to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and gray hairs.

The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.

It’s not given to people to judge what’s right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong.

People are much more willing to lend you books than bookcases.

He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.

Drive a nail home and clinch it so faithfully that you can wake up in the night and think of your work with satisfaction,a work at which you would not be ashamed to invoke the Muse.

We estimate the wisdom of nations by seeing what they did with their surplus capital.

When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once.

We never become really and genuinely our entire and honest selves until we are dead – and not then until we have been dead years and years. People ought to start dead and then they would be honest so much earlier.

Flow with whatever may happen, and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.

In the highest civilization, the book is still the highest delight. He who has once known its satisfactions is provided with a resource against calamity.

Responsibilities are given to him on whom trust rests. Responsibility is always a sign of trust.

Mountains will go into labour, and a silly little mouse will be born.

The city is recruited from the country.

One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals.