Ralph Waldo Emerson

The value of a dollar is social, as it is created by society.

Money is the representative of a certain quantity of corn or other commodity. It is so much warmth, so much bread.

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

Skepticism is unbelief in cause and effect.

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

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

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.

If you shoot at a king you must kill him.

As to conforming outwardly, and living your own life inwardly, I have not a very high opinion of that course.

Fidelity has enfranchised slaves, and adopted servants to be sons.

Can you really explain to a fish what it’s like to walk on land? One day on land is worth a thousand years of talking about it, and one day running a business has exactly the same kind of value.

Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare The truth thou hast, that all may share; Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.

Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short, in all the management of human affairs.

The power which resides in man is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.

Self-realization is effortless. What you are trying to find is what you already are.

He who is upright in his way of life and free from sin.

He that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly become corrupt.

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. They prefer suffering that is familiar to the unknown.

Wake up, lift your head, open your eyes, and dream. Gaze softly into your heart’s whispers. Notice the pull of your belly and that which makes you come alive. Let your soul speak, beckoning you to embark on that one voyage you can no longer let lie.

Have wholesome, but not costly Food, and be rather cleanly than dainty in ordering it.

Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.