Ralph Waldo Emerson

Who shall set a limit to the influence of a human being?

It is very easy in the world to live by the opinion of the world. It is very easy in solitude to be self-centered. But the finished man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Do not tell me of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong.

The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode.

Art is the path of the creator to his work.

What is the imagination? Only an arm or weapon of the interior energy; only the precursor of the reason.

We’re comic. We’re all comics. We live in a comic time. And the worse it gets the more comic we are.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.

Count on it, if a person talks of their misfortune, there is something in it that is not disagreeable to them.

Why should we take advice on sex from the pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn’t!

My reputation grows with every failure.

Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely is made for the eye of one who sees.

Some people are stuck on who I was that who I am never even had a chance.

This merriment of parsons is mighty offensive.

If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle.

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud. I am arrived at last in the presence of a man so real and equal, that I may drop even those undermost garments of dissimulation, courtesy, and second thought, which men never put off, and may deal with him with the simplicity and wholeness with which one chemical atom meets another.

You are a constant. Forever in my mind; forever in my heart. It seems that most matter how much I try I can’t get rid of you. You are a thorn, stuck in deep; painful to remove, and even when I do, still I’ll bleed and feel the soreness. It will take time, but it will heal. No matter the pain, I will still dare to pick roses.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

Your playing small does not serve the world. Who are you not to be great?