Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man cannot speak but he judges himself. With his will or against his will he draws his portrait to the eye of his companions by every word. Every opinion reacts on him who utters it. It is a threadball thrown at a mark, but the other end remains on the thrower.

The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor.

It is one of the beautiful compensations in this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

Nature has made up her mind that what cannot defend itself shall not be defended.

Every artist was first an amateur.

Every man is an impossibility until he is born.

When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him to the public.

Some books leave us free and some books make us free.

Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.

The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them.

All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.

I love books.

Classic – A book which people praise and don’t read.

Books, not which afford us a cowering enjoyment, but in which each thought is of unusual daring; such as an idle man cannot read, and a timid one would not be entertained by, which even make us dangerous to existing institution – such call I good books.

I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

As a child I used to read Gone with the Wind over and over again. I wanted to be Scarlett O’Hara. I never wanted to believe that it was possible that there could be infidelity. I never wanted to be believe that it was even possible for a man to look another way, even for a moment. My bubble of monogamy was pierced in a harsh way.

Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all.

I don’t care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book.

Tis the good reader that makes the good book.