Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every man is a consumer and ought to be a producer.

Life consists in what a person is thinking of all day.

A man is known by the books he reads, by the company he keeps, by the praise he gives, by his dress, by his tastes, by his distastes, by the stories he tells, by his gait, by the notion of his eye, by the look of his house, of his chamber; for nothing on earth is solitary but every thing hath affinities infinite.

All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.

The less government we have the better.

Intellectual tasting of life will not supersede muscular activity.

We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills;we shall never surrender.

The longer we live the more we think and the higher the value we put on friendship and tenderness towards parents and friends.

Some look at things that are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not?

It is the only sensual pleasure without vice.

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.

A private Life is to be preferred; the Honor and Gain of publick Posts, bearing no proportion with the Comfort of it

Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple many things which are involved in haunting and harassing difficulties and obscurities now.

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

The virtue in most request is conformity.

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinions; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

I am reminded of the professor who, in his declining hours, was asked by his devoted pupils for his final counsel. He replied, ‘Verify your quotations.’

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. The conviction of the rich that the poor are happier is no more foolish than the conviction of the poor that the rich are.

Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.

It all depends on you. You can go on sleeping forever, you can wake up right this moment.

I’m not a teacher: only a fellow-traveler of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead – ahead of myself as well as you.