Ralph Waldo Emerson

Travel is a fools paradise.

An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.

All the great ages have been ages of belief.

Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem to be confidences or sides hidden from all else and unmistakably meant for his ear; the profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader; the profound thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until it is discovered by an equal mind and heart.

Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated about among men of thought.

I’m proof against that word failure. I’ve seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.

Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty; but to be angry with it as if it were direct cruelty would be an ignorant unkindness.

Cure the disease and kill the patient.

Who has not felt the beauty of a woman’s arm? The unspeakable suggestions of tenderness that lie in the dimpled elbow, and all the varied gently-lessening curves, down to the delicate wrist, with its tiniest, almost imperceptible nicks in the firm softness.

To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted, and is at last unwillingly bestowed.

We must train hard. It’s not about denying a weakness may exist but about denying its right to persist.

Why should we take advice on sex from the pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn’t!

Not one word, not one gesture of yours shall I, could I, ever forget…

Wealth is in applications of mind to nature; and the art of getting rich consists not in industry, much less in saving, but in a better order, in timeliness, in being at the right spot.

There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.

Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.

Enjoy yourself – it’s later than you think.

In every author let us distinguish the man from his works.

France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.