Ralph Waldo Emerson

If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap, than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

What is so great as friendship, let us carry with what grandeur of spirit we can. Let us be silent, — so we may hear the whisper of the gods. Let us not interfere. Who set you to cast about what you should say to the select souls, or how to say any thing to such? No matter how ingenious, no matter how graceful and bland. There are innumerable degrees of folly and wisdom, and for you to say aught is to be frivolous. Wait, and thy heart shall speak. Wait until the necessary and everlasting overpowers you, until day and night avail themselves of your lips. The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.

Tis very certain that each man carries in his eye the exact indication of his rank in the immense scale of men, and we are always learning to read it. A complete man should need no auxiliaries to his personal presence.

Want is a growing giant whom the coat of Have was never large enough to cover.

The secret of culture is to learn, that a few great points steadily reappear.

Be an opener of doors.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

Cities force growth and make people talkative and entertaining, but they also make them artificial.

Do that which is assigned to you and you cannot hope too much or dare too much.

Act, if you like, but you do it at your peril. Men’s actions are too strong for them. Show me a man who has acted and who has not been the victim and slave of his action.

Round numbers are always false.

Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.

Well, when it comes to social media – there are just times I turn off the world, you know. There are just some times you have to give yourself space to be quiet, which means you’ve got to set those phones down. You can’t be reading all that stuff. I mean, that’s like letting somebody just walk up and slap you, you know? You would never do that. You would never just sit there and go, slap me in the face and I’m good with it. No. So why would you open yourself up to that?

A wise man makes what he learns his own, the other shows he is but a copy or a collection at most.

A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.

Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.

The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.

Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates.

He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father’s wisdom than he who has a great deal left to him owes to his father’s care.

The great advantage of a hotel is that it is a refuge from home life.

Every man has his own vocation, talent is the call.