Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing external to you has any power over you.

The silence that accepts merit as the most natural thing in the world is the highest applause.

Coffee is good for talent, but genius wants prayer.

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.

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.

If you shoot at a king you must kill him.

Do not waste your time on Social Questions. What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness.

If we do not maintain Justice, Justice will not maintain us.

The maxim of the British people is Business as usual.

If you are in a poker game and after 20 minutes you don’t know who the patsy is, then you’re the patsy.

When things are steep, remember to stay level-headed.

In labouring to be concise, I become obscure.

We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples.

Leave this hypocritical prating about the masses. Masses are rude, lame, unmade, pernicious in their demands and influence, and need not to be flattered, but to be schooled. I wish not to concede anything to them, but to tame, drill, divide, and break them up, and draw individuals out of them.

All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients.

The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till the other is ready, and it may be along time before they get off.

Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events.

His honest, patronizing pride in the good-will and respect of everybody about him was a safeguard even against foolish romance, still more against a lower kind of folly.

Once you truly understand that it is okay to lose or fail, you are free, you have nothing to fear, and only then, can nothing in this world hold you back.

It all depends on you. You can go on sleeping forever, you can wake up right this moment.

History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes.