Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be silly, be honest, be kind.

Speech is power; speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel.

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.

I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.

It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, 'always do what you are afraid to do.'

The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.

As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.

Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.

The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without.

Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief in denying them.

Every artist was first an amateur.

The years teach much which the days never know.

We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Learn from it... tomorrow is a new day.

Every hero becomes a bore at last.

Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis.

To fill the hour – that is happiness.

Life consists of what man is thinking about all day.

A great man is always willing to be little

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.

Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.

Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.

Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding.

All diseases run into one, old age.

A man is usually more careful of his money than of his principles.

Money often costs too much.

Poverty breeds lack of self-reliance.

Some books leave us free and some books make us free.

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.

True humility is intelligent self respect which keeps us from thinking too highly or too meanly of ourselves. It makes us modest by reminding us how far we have come short of what we can be. Ralph W.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

Every man I meet is in some way my superior.

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

Speak the truth, and all things alive or brute are vouchers, and the very roots of the grass underground there, do seem to stir and move to bear you witness.

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs.

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

Good is positive. Evil is merely privative, not absolute: it is like cold, which is the privation of heat. All evil is so much death or nonentity. Benevolence is absolute and real. So much benevolence as a man hath, so much life hath he.

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. All is riddle, and the key to a riddle is another riddle.

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

A man is what he thinks about all day long.

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed.

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.

The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war.

Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.

If the stars should appear but one night every thousand years how man would marvel and stare.

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

The vegetable life does not content itself with casting from the flower or the tree a single seed, but it fills the air and earth with a prodigality of seeds, that, if thousands perish, thousands may plant themselves, that hundreds may come up, that tens may live to maturity; that, at least one may replace the parent.

Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

Every particular in nature, a leaf, a drop, a crystal, a moment of time is related to the whole, and partakes of the perfection of the whole.

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting.

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.

All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.

It is not length of life, but depth of life.

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

Who you are speaks so loudly I can't hear what you're saying.

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.

People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.

Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.

The reward of a thing well done is having done it.

The age of a woman doesn't mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.

A man in debt is so far a slave.

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.

God enters by a private door into every individual.

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind. Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

Hitch your wagon to a star.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

Men are what their mothers made them.

The first wealth is health.

Doing well is the result of doing good. That's what capitalism is all about.

Always do what you are afraid to do.

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

In quoting others, we cite ourselves.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. We can only see what we are.

To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

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.

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

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

Your actions speak so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.

Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine.

We must be our own before we can be another’s.

Habits and customs are a convenience devised for the support of timid natures who dare not allow their souls free play.

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.