Ralph Waldo Emerson

We estimate the wisdom of nations by seeing what they did with their surplus capital.

Raphael paints wisdom; Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it.

A great man stands on God. A small man on a great man.

So much of our time is spent in preparation, so much in routine, and so much in retrospect, that the amount of each person’s genius is confined to a very few hours.

But you must pay for conformity. All goes well as long as you run with conformists. But you, who are honest men in other particulars, know, that there is alive somewhere a man whose honesty reaches to this point also, that he shall not kneel to false gods, and, on the day when you meet him, you sink into the class of counterfeits.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

Practice makes perfect, and nobody’s perfect, so why practice?

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

In all our contacts it is probably the sense of being really needed and wanted which gives us the greatest satisfaction and creates the most lasting bond.

I was exceedingly delighted with the waltz, and also with the polka. These differ in name, but there the difference ceases

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

The line of beauty is the line of perfect economy.

You should read history and look at ostracism, persecution, martyrdom, and that kind of thing. They always happen to the best men, you know.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it come to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.

It is generally known, that he who expects much will be often disappointed; yet disappointment seldom cures us of expectation, or has any effect other than that of producing a moral sentence or peevish exclamation.

I hate women because they always know where things are.

I have a higher and grander standard of principle than George Washington. He could not lie; I can, but I won’t.

What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? Two hundred more.

What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?

No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.