Ralph Waldo Emerson

The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor.

There is no thought in any mind, but it quickly tends to convert itself into power.

Genius always finds itself a century too early.

Whenever you are sincerely pleased you are nourished.

In conversation the game is, to say something new with old words. And you shall observe a man of the people picking his way along, step by step, using every time an old boulder, yet never setting his foot on an old place.

What is so great as friendship, let us carry with what grandeur of spirit we can. Let us be silent, — so we may hear the whisper of the gods. Let us not interfere. Who set you to cast about what you should say to the select souls, or how to say any thing to such? No matter how ingenious, no matter how graceful and bland. There are innumerable degrees of folly and wisdom, and for you to say aught is to be frivolous. Wait, and thy heart shall speak. Wait until the necessary and everlasting overpowers you, until day and night avail themselves of your lips. The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.

The human race afraid of nothing, rushes on through every crime.

The responsibility of tolerance lies in those who have the wider vision.

No one ever became great by imitation.

Give me insight into today and you may have the antique and future worlds.

Men have to do some awfully mean things to keep up their respectability.

Good breeding, a union of kindness and independence.

Do we not wile away moments of inanity or fatigued waiting by repeating some trivial movement or sound, until the repetition has bred a want, which is incipient habit?

Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

Why should I be unhappy? Every parcel of my being is in full bloom.

Repartee is something we think of twenty-four hours too late.

Lord save us all from a hope tree that has lost the faculty of putting out blossoms.

Men are what their mothers made them.

I have lived some thirty-odd years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.

Nothing is more common than mutual dislike, where mutual approbation is particularly expected.

If we do not maintain Justice, Justice will not maintain us.