Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every book is good to read which sets the reader in a working mood.

Poetry being ... when we look from the center outward.

Let us make education brave and preventive. Politics is an afterwork, a poor patching. We are always a little late... We shall one day learn to supercede politics by education... We must begin higher up, namely in Education.

So use all that is called Fortune. Most men gamble with her, and gain all, and lose all, as her wheel rolls. But do thou leave as unlawful these winnings, and deal with Cause and Effect, the Chancellors of God.

Every person has his or her own vocation-talent is the call.

Why should I hasten to solve every riddle which life offers me? I am well assured that the Questioner, who brings me so many problems, will bring me the answers also, in due time.

Be brave enough to do the loving thing.

I like to have a person's knowledge comprehend more than one class of topics, one row of shelves. I like a person who likes to see a fine barn as well as a good tragedy.

I'm happier. I guess I made up my mind to be that way.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul.

Your work should be in praise of what you love.

It is better to be a thorn in the side of a friend than an echo.

Find the journey's end in every step.

Repose and cheerfulness are the badge of the gentleman - repose in energy. The Greek battle pieces are calm; the heroes, in whatever violent actions engaged, retain a serene aspect.

To be gret is to be misunderstood.

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life. Football is four 15-minute quarters. Plus timeouts and commercials.

What matters most is not what is behind us or before us, but what is within us.

There was never anything that did not proceed from a thought.

There are eyes, to be sure, that give no more admission into the man than blueberries.

The only gift is a portion of thyself . . . the poet brings his poem; the shepherd his lamb. . . .

Only poetry inspires poetry.

In politics and in trade, bruisers and pirates are of better promise than talkers and clerks.

One single idea may have greater weight than all the men, animals, and machines for a century.

People are very inclined to set moral standards for others.

The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast away our virtues, or what we have always esteemed such, into the same pit that has consumed our grosser vices.

No one has a prosperity so high and firm that two or three words can't dishearten it.

There is one topic peremptorily forbidden to all well-bred, to all rational mortals, namely, their distempers.

To a physician, each man, each woman, is an amplification of one organ.

We may be partial, but Fate is not.

I appeal from your customs. I must be myself. I cannot break myself anylonger for you, or you. If you can love me for what I am, we shall bethe happier. If you cannot, I will still seek to deserve that youshould. I will not hide my tastes or aversions. I will so trust thatwhat is deep is holy, that I will do strongly before the sun and moonwhatever inly rejoices me, and the heart appoints. If you are noble, Iwill love you; if you are not, I will not hurt you and myself byhypocritical attentions. If you are true, but no