Ralph Waldo Emerson

Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to get out, and such as are out wish to get in?

We judge of man’s wisdom by his hope.

The great majority of men are bundles of beginnings.

A man is a god in ruins.

The angels are so enamoured of the language that is spoken in heaven, that they will not distort their lips with the hissing and unmusical dialects of men, but speak their own, whether there be any who understand it or not.

We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes.

Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to be quite true.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

In this country it is a good thing to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others.

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

I’m only a beer teetotaler, not a champagne teetotaler.

Haven’t you learned yet that I put something more than whisky into my speeches.

To hazard much to get much has more of avarice than wisdom.

I never could tell a lie that anybody would doubt, nor a truth that anybody would believe.

The secret of all good writing is sound judgment.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant [excessive thought]. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a man, Sir, I am your most humble servant. You are not his most humble servant. You may say, These are bad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved to such times. You don’t mind the times … You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in Society; but don’t think foolishly.

She was no longer wrestling with the grief, but could sit down with it as a lasting companion and make it a sharer in her thoughts.

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.

The Mona Lisa, the Mona Lisa….Leonardo had eye trouble….Art couldn’t explain it….But now we’re safe, since science can explain it. Maybe Milton wrote Paradise Lost because he was blind? And Beethoven wrote the Ninth Symphony because he was deaf…

Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books nobody reads.