Ralph Waldo Emerson

I find that the Americans have no passions, they have appetites.

He is great who confers the most benefits.

Art is the path of the creator to his work.

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

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.

That which we call sin in others, is experiment for us.

They that deny a God destroy man’s nobility; for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and, if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.

That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.

So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.

Sometimes people mistake the way I talk for what I am thinking.

Work is always an antidote to depression.

The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.

Always seeking acceptance from others, searching for belonging. Striving for individuality, yet wanting to fit in. Never understanding that acceptance for one’s own individuality make all of that redundant.

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.

Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.

Our planet is being turned into a filthy and evil-smelling imperialist barrack.

The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.

If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle.

Many of the phenomena of Winter are suggestive of an inexpressible tenderness and fragile delicacy. We are accustomed to hear this king described as a rude and boisterous tyrant; but with the gentleness of a lover he adorns the tresses of Summer.

Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.

Do the wise thing and the kind thing too, and make the best of us and not the worst.