Ralph Waldo Emerson

Never read any book that is not a year old.

There is no luck in literary reputation. They who make up the final verdict upon every book are not the partial and noisy readers of the hour when it appears; but a court as of angels, a public not to be bribed, not to be entreated, and not to be overawed, decides upon every man’s title to fame.

The only sin that we never forgive in each other is a difference in opinion.

Good men must not obey the laws too well.

It is very easy in the world to live by the opinion of the world. It is very easy in solitude to be self-centered. But the finished man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Do what you know and perception is converted into character.

Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.

We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.

People sleep, and when they die they wake.

In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.

Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.

We can’t plan life. All we can do is be available for it.

What is read twice is usually remembered more than what is once written.

Wherever work is done, victory is attained.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake.

This gives force to the strong — that the multitude have no habit of self-reliance or original action.

There is a hush over all Europe, nay, over all the world. Alas! it is the hush of suspense, and in many lands it is the hush of fear. Listen! No, listen carefully, I think I hear somethingyes, there it was quite clear. Dont you hear it? It is the tramp of armies crunching the gravel of the paradegrounds, splashing through rain-soaked fields, the tramp of two million German soldiers and more than a million Italiansgoing on maneuversyes, only on maneuvers!

When you do the wrong thing, knowing it is wrong, you do so because you haven’t developed the habit of effectively controlling or neutralizing strong inner urges that tempt you, or because you have established the wrong habit and don’t know how to eliminate them effectively.

The compensations of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also, after long intervals of time. A fever, a mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss of friends, seems at the moment unpaid loss, and unpayable. But the sure years reveal the deep remedial force that underlies all facts.

I am a democrat only on principle, not by instinct – nobody is that. Doubtless some people say they are, but this world is grievously given to lying.

Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.