Ralph Waldo Emerson

Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices.

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

Knowledge comes by eyes always open and working hands; and there is no knowledge that is not power.

A sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.

Self-sacrifice is the real miracle out of which all the reported miracles grow.

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.

Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.

Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.

Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed.

What is once well done is done forever.

Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.

It is very easy in the world to live by the opinion of the world. It is very easy in solitude to be self-centered. But the finished man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

All schools, all colleges, have two great functions: to confer, and to conceal, valuable knowledge. The theological knowledge which they conceal cannot justly be regarded as less valuable than that which they reveal. That is, when a man is buying a basket of strawberries it can profit him to know that the bottom half of it is rotten.

The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.

There are no people who are quite so vulgar as the over-refined.

The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode.

There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles… but there is one order of beauty which seems made to turn the heads not only of men, but of all intelligent mammals, even of women. It is a beauty like that of kittens, or very small downy ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills, or babies just beginning to toddle and to engage in conscious mischief -a beauty with which you can never be angry, but that you feel ready to crush for inability to comprehend the state of mind into which it throws you.

Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

Danger – if you meet it promptly and without flinching – you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!

The savage in man is never quite eradicated.

The power of daring anything their fancy suggest, as always been conceded to the painter and the poet.