Ralph Waldo Emerson

We must be our own before we can be another’s.

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,Here once the embattled farmers stood,And fired the shot heard round the world.

There is no one who does not exaggerate!

The most dangerous thing is illusion.

Nothing is beneath you if it is in the direction of your life.

Every man has his own vocation, talent is the call.

Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.

But you must pay for conformity. All goes well as long as you run with conformists. But you, who are honest men in other particulars, know, that there is alive somewhere a man whose honesty reaches to this point also, that he shall not kneel to false gods, and, on the day when you meet him, you sink into the class of counterfeits.

Rare virtues are like rare plants or animals, things that have not been able to hold their own in the world. A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner but more durable metal.

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. They prefer suffering that is familiar to the unknown.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

The highest panegyric, therefore, that private virtue can receive, is the praise of servants.

I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an attorney.

When you’ve got them by their wallets, their hearts and minds will follow.

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

That strong mother doesn’t tell her cub ‘Son, stay weak so the wolves can get you’. She says, ‘Toughen up, this is reality we are living in’.

The true poem is the poet’s mind.

Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.

Do not assume anything. Clear your mind must be if you are to discover the real villains behind this plot.

As the births of living creatures, at first, are ill-shapen: so are all Innovations, which are the births of time.

Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.