Ralph Waldo Emerson

If there is any period one would desire to be born in, is it not the age of Revolution; when the old and the new stand side by side, and admit of being compared; when the energies of all men are searched by fear and by hope; when the historic glories of the old can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new era?

Of all debts men are least willing to pay the taxes. What a satire is this on government! Everywhere they think they get their moneys worth, except for these.

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

Shallow people believe in luck and in circumstances; Strong people believe in cause and effect.

The soul of God is poured into the world through the thoughts of men.

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

We’re comic. We’re all comics. We live in a comic time. And the worse it gets the more comic we are.

In spite of his practical ability, some of his experience had petrified into maxims and quotations.

No matter how hard the past is, we can always begin again.

Monarchies, aristocracies, and religions are all based upon that large defect in your race – the individual’s distrust of his neighbor, and his desire, for safety’s or comfort’s sake, to stand well in his neighbor’s eye. These institutions will always remain, and always flourish, and always oppress you, affront you, and degrade you, because you will always be and remain slaves of minorities. There was never a country where the majority of the people were in their secret hearts loyal to any of these institutions.

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! The book exists for us, perchance, that will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered.

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

What we become depends on what our fathers teach us.

Explore thyself. Herein are demanded the eye and the nerve.

There are innumerable questions to which the inquisitive mind can in this state receive no answer: Why do you and I exist? Why was this world created? Since it was to be created, why was it not created sooner?

It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

However small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance is there. The chance had to be there.

Winners never quit and quitters never win.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.