Ralph Waldo Emerson

The triumphs of peace have been in some proximity to war. Whilst the hand was still familiar with the sword-hilt, whilst the habits of the camp were still visible in the port and complexion of the gentleman, his intellectual power culminated; the compression and tension of these stern conditions is a training for the finest and softest arts, and can rarely be compensated in tranquil times, except by some analogous vigor drawn from occupations as hardy as war.

The first wealth is health.

The miracles of genius always rest on profound convictions which refuse to be analyzed.

The never-ending task of self improvement.

We must set up a strong present tense against all rumors of wrath, past and to come.

An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.

The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.

Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will.

A short letter to a distant friend is, in my opinion, an insult like that of a slight bow or cursory salutation — a proof of unwillingness to do much, even where there is a necessity of doing something.

Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.

Language is the archives of history.

No real gentleman will tell the naked truth in the presence of ladies.

The camera can represent flesh so superbly that, if I dared, I would never photograph a figure without asking that figure to take its clothes off.

Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged, must end in disappointment. If it be asked, what is the improper expectation which it is dangerous to indulge, experience will quickly answer, that it is such expectation as is dictated not by reason, but by desire; expectation raised, not by the common occurrences of life, but by the wants of the expectant; an expectation that requires the common course of things to be changed, and the general rules of action to be broken.

It’s not the adversity, but how you face it.

When you know better you do better.

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker upon the planet. Then all things are at risk.

I think that age is irrelevant. We’re all pretty much spiritual beings – I consider myself to be about eighty-five. I feel like I’m ancient, like two thousand years old.

The man with a toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound. The poverty-stricken man makes the same mistake about the rich man.