Ralph Waldo Emerson

Men talk as if victory were something fortunate. Work is victory.

The pest of society are the egotist, they are dull and bright, sacred and profane, course and fine. It is a disease that like the flu falls on all constitutions.

Life too near paralyses art.

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

The less a man thinks or knows about his virtues, the better we like him.

The history of persecution is a history of endeavors to cheat nature, to make water run up hill, to twist a rope of sand.

When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity.

Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.

He took off his hat and shook it (having hurried home as though his own coronation were waiting), and moved now with the slow deliberation of lonely people who have time for every meager requirement of their lives.

Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good.

Whenever you wish to do anything against the law, Cicely, always consult a good solicitor first.

In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.

Is life worth living? This is a question for an embryo not for a man.

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.

When one wanted one’s interests looking after whatever the cost, it was not so well for a lawyer to be over honest, else he might not be up to other people’s tricks.

I found you essay to be good and original. However, the part that was original was not good and the part that was good was not original.

If women were as fastidious as men, morally or physically, there would be an end of the race.

A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold.

Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.

The Public is merely a multiplied “me”.

He that complies against his will is of his own opinion still.