Ralph Waldo Emerson

The man who can make hard things easy is the educator.

Poetry must be as new as foam and as old as the rock.

We judge of man’s wisdom by his hope.

If a man knew anything, he would sit in a corner and be modest; but he is such an ignorant peacock, that he goes bustling up and down, and hits on extraordinary discoveries.

What is life but the angle of vision? A man is measured by the angle at which he looks at objects. What is life but what a man is thinking of all day? This is his fate and his employer. Knowing is the measure of the man. By how much we know, so much we are.

He is great who is what he is from nature, and who never reminds us of others.

Youth is like spring, an over-praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes. Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.

As Love ought to bring them together, so it is the best Way to keep them well together.

Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found; and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.

Tis a superstition to insist on a special diet. All is made at last of the same chemical atoms.

Anger is a momentary madness, so control your passion or it will control you.

A soiled baby, with a neglected nose, cannot be conscientiously regarded as a thing of beauty.

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.

The sun is but a morning star.

We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.

Conversation enriches the understanding; but solitude is the school of genius.