Ralph Waldo Emerson

The reason why men do not obey us is because they see the mud at the bottom of our eye.

Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.

A day for toil, an hour for sport, but for a friend is life too short.

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.

Nothing is more disgusting than the crowing about liberty by slaves, as most men are, and the flippant mistaking for freedom of some paper preamble like a Declaration of Independence, or the statute right to vote, by those who have never dared to think or to act.

It the proof of high culture to say the greatest matters in the simplest way.

Not one word, not one gesture of yours shall I, could I, ever forget…

Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.

Liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery.

It is at our mother’s knee that we acquire our noblest and truest and highest ideals, but there is seldom any money in them.

People who are truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together.

We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples.

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.

These times of ours are serious and full of calamity, but all times are essentially alike. As soon as there is life there is danger.

The public must and will be served.

What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to keep each other warm.

I have the conviction that excessive literary production is a social offence.

No matter how often you are defeated, you are born to victory.

A broken heart is a very pleasant complaint for a man in London if he has a comfortable income.

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.