Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

A man is related to all nature.

Men achieve a certain greatness unawares, when working to another aim.

If a man owns land, the land owns him.

Life is a series of surprises and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.

Columbus discovered no isle or key so lonely as himself.

They must first judge themselves, that presume to censure others: And such will not be apt to overshoot the Mark. We are too ready to retaliate, rather than forgive, or gain by Love and Information. And yet we could hurt no Man that we believe loves us. Let us then try what Love will do: For if Men did once see we Love them, we should soon find they would not harm us. Force may subdue, but Love gains: And he that forgives first, wins the [Laurel]. If I am even with my Enemy, the Debt is paid; but if I forgive it, I oblige him for ever.

Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.

No man thoroughly understands a truth until he has contended against it.

I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life’.

It isn’t making mistakes that’s critical; it’s correcting them and getting on with the principal task.

If I shall sell both my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I’m sure that, for me, there would be nothing left worth living for.

The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but for deliverance from fear.

The studious class are their own victims: they are thin and pale, their feet are cold, their heads are hot, the night is without sleep, the day a fear of interruption –pallor, squalor, hunger, and egotism.

The Mona Lisa, the Mona Lisa….Leonardo had eye trouble….Art couldn’t explain it….But now we’re safe, since science can explain it. Maybe Milton wrote Paradise Lost because he was blind? And Beethoven wrote the Ninth Symphony because he was deaf…

Hardly a man in the world has an opinion upon morals, politics or religion which he got otherwise than through his associations and sympathies. Broadly speaking, there are none but corn-pone opinions. And broadly speaking, Corn-Pone stands for Self-Approval. Self-approval is acquired mainly from the approval of other people. The result is Conformity.

The greatest gift is the ability to forget – to forget the bad things and focus on the good.

He looks the whole world in the face for he owes not any man.

Events can neither be regarded as a series of adventures nor strung on the thread of a preconceived moral. They must obey their own laws.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.

All great truths begin as blasphemies.