Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every hero becomes a bore at last.

Art is a jealous mistress; and if a man have a genius for painting, poetry, music, architecture or philosophy, he makes a bad husband and an ill provider.

The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low business-tone, avoids all brag, is nobody, dresses plainly, promises not at all, performs much, speaks in monosyllables, hugs his fact. He calls his employment by its lowest name, and so takes from evil tongues their sharpest weapon. His conversation clings to the weather and the news, yet he allows himself to be surprised into thought, and the unlocking of his learning and philosophy.

Self-trust is the essence of heroism.

No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my own constitution; the only wrong what is against it.

In sculpture did ever anybody call the Apollo a fancy piece? Or say of the Laocoon how it might be made different? A masterpiece of art has in the mind a fixed place in the chain of being, as much as a plant or a crystal.

It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy – but he who has shown the better temper.

Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we storm heaven itself in our folly.

For many years I was a self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rainstorms and did my duty faithfully, though I never received payment for it.

We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.

True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world.

The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.

Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderate use rather than total abstinence.

Hitch your wagon to a star. Let us not fag in paltry works which serve our pot and bag alone.

The right merchant is one who has the just average of faculties we call common sense; a man of a strong affinity for facts, who makes up his decision on what he has seen. He is thoroughly persuaded of the truths of arithmetic. There is always a reason, in the man, for his good or bad fortune in making money. Men talk as if there were some magic about this. He knows that all goes on the old road, pound for pound, cent for cent – for every effect a perfect cause – and that good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

The youth of an art is, like the youth of anything else, its most interesting period. When it has come to the knowledge of good and evil it is stronger, but we care less about it.

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.

What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.