Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are only ten minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat.

Wherever work is done, victory is attained.

The true poem is the poet’s mind.

Nature… She pardons no mistakes. Her yea is yea, and her nay, nay.

A man finds room in the few square inches of the face for the traits of all his ancestors; for the expression of all his history, and his wants.

But real action is in silent moments. The epochs of our life are not in the visible facts of our choice of a calling, our marriage, our acquisition of an office, and the like, but in a silent thought by the wayside as we walk; in a thought which revises our entire manner of life, and says.

This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal.

When desire, having rejected reason and overpowered judgment which leads to right, is set in the direction of the pleasure which beauty can inspire, and when again under the influence of its kindred desires it is moved with violent motion towards the beauty of corporeal forms, it acquires a surname from this very violent motion, and is called love.

Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children.

Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.

It is a severe Rebuke upon us, that God makes us so many Allowances, and we make so few to our Neighbor: As if Charity had nothing to do with Religion; Or Love with Faith, that ought to work by it.

Stay with me,’ he said, ‘until the sun goes out, the seas are parched, and the wind draws its last breath.

Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.

Of all God’s creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with a cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Tis admirable to consider, how Powerful the Kings are, yet they move by the Breath of their People.

Love truth, but pardon error.

Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed.

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.

Life is tough, my darling, but so are you.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change thing I can, and wisdom to know the difference.