Ralph Waldo Emerson

Of course, money will do after its kind, and will steadily work to unspiritualize and unchurch the people to whom it was bequeathed.

Conversation enriches the understanding; but solitude is the school of genius.

The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight with a verse given in a happy quotation than in the poem.

Imagination is not a talent of some people but is the health of everyone.

The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low business-tone, avoids all brag, is nobody, dresses plainly, promises not at all, performs much, speaks in monosyllables, hugs his fact. He calls his employment by its lowest name, and so takes from evil tongues their sharpest weapon. His conversation clings to the weather and the news, yet he allows himself to be surprised into thought, and the unlocking of his learning and philosophy.

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.

Syllables govern the world.

If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.

I often think that men don’t understand what is noble and what is ignorant, though they always talk about it.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

We are always getting ready to live but never living.

During my life, I have had a few nightmares which happened to me while I was wide awake.

The ocean is a wilderness reaching round the globe, wilder than a Bengal jungle, and fuller of monsters, washing the very wharves of our cities and the gardens of our sea-side residences.

But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

I tell you there isn’t a thing under the sun that needs to be done at all, but what a man can do better than a woman, unless it’s bearing children, and they do that in a poor make-shift way; it had better been left to the men.

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.

In the word of no master am I bound to believe.

If the Almighty were to rebuild the world and asked me for advice, I would have English Channels round every country. And the atmosphere would be such that anything which attempted to fly would be set on fire.

Anger is a brief lunacy.