Ralph Waldo Emerson

Of all debts men are least willing to pay the taxes. What a satire is this on government! Everywhere they think they get their moneys worth, except for these.

Fear always springs from ignorance.

The key to every man is his thought. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.

We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten.

The less government we have the better.

Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.

We should come home from adventures and perils and discoveries with new experiences and character.

Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are.

I have thought of a pulley to raise me gradually; but that would give me pain, as it would counteract my natural inclination. I would have something that can dissipate the inertia and give elasticity to the muscles. We can heat the body, we can cool it; we can give it tension or relaxation; and surely it is possible to bring it into a state in which rising from bed will not be a pain.

Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.

Hunger is never delicate; they who are seldom gorged to the full with praise may be safely fed with gross compliments, for the appetite must be satisfied before it is disgusted.

The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue; and no genius can long or often utter anything which is not invited and gladly entertained by men around him.

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. 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.

We have more than we use.

Commerce is of trivial import; love, faith, truth of character, the aspiration of man, these are sacred.

Some of your grief you have cured, and lived to survive; but what torments of pain have you endured that haven’t as yet arrived.

Take away the danger and remove the restraint, and wayward nature runs free.

Just do what works for you, because there will always be someone who think diffenrently…

If you injure your neighbour, better not do it by halves.

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.

I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.