Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.

In sculpture did ever anybody call the Apollo a fancy piece? Or say of the Laocoon how it might be made different? A masterpiece of art has in the mind a fixed place in the chain of being, as much as a plant or a crystal.

So of cheerfulness, or a good temper, the more it is spent, the more it remains.

Men are respectable only as they respect.

Whenever you are sincerely pleased you are nourished.

How many attractions for us have our passing fellows in the streets, both male and female, which our ethics forbid us to express, which yet infuse so much pleasure into life. A lovely child, a handsome youth, a beautiful girl, a heroic man, a maternal woman, a venerable old man, charm us, though strangers, and we cannot say so, or look at them but for a moment.

I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well.

A strenuous soul hates cheap success.

Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.

Truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men.

One may discover a new side to his most intimate friend when for the first time he hears him speak in public. He will be stranger to him as he is more familiar to the audience. The longest intimacy could not foretell how he would behave then

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.

I sit on a man’s back choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that i am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all means possible….except by getting off his back.

I think I can say, and say with pride, that we have some legislatures that bring higher prices than any in the world.

Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.

Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else to be a monster.

Mr. Emerson visited Thoreau at the jail, and the meeting between the two philosophers must have been interesting and somewhat dramatic. The account of the meeting was told me by Miss Maria Thoreau Henry Thoreaus auntHenry, why are you here? Waldo, why are you not here?

Of all the anti-social vested interests the worst is the vested interest in ill-health.

You should read history and look at ostracism, persecution, martyrdom, and that kind of thing. They always happen to the best men, you know.

I do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow because even today I still arrive.

Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.