Ralph Waldo Emerson

Manners require time, and nothing is more vulgar than haste.

Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to get out, and such as are out wish to get in?

O friend, never strike sail to a fear! Come into port greatly, or sail with God the seas.

The quality of the imagination is to flow and not to freeze.

Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.

Death comes to all, but great achievements build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold.

Only a man’s character is the real criterion of worth.

Your path will unfold as you walk it, step by step, each one a choice. Be mindful of where you put your feet; sometimes you will step on something sharp. This is a lesson; pay attention. Sometimes you will walk on soft green grass and you will stop and stay awhile. Enjoy those moments. Keep your eyes and heart on your destination and discover your way, one step at a time.

If we want maturity, we have to be mature. If we want a nation that feels hopeful, then we have to speak in hopeful terms… We have to model what we want.

Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

We are as much informed of a writer’s genius by what he selects as by what he originates.

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

The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.

Beauty without expression is boring.

Wisdom is like electricity. There is no permanently wise man, but men capable of wisdom, who, being put into certain company, or other favorable conditions, become wise for a short time, as glasses rubbed acquire electric power for a while.

Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Moms. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.

A big leather-bound volume makes an ideal razor strap. A thin book is useful to stick under a table with a broken caster to steady it. A large, flat atlas can be used to cover a window with a broken pane. And a thick, old-fashioned heavy book with a clasp is the finest thing in the world to throw at a noisy cat.

The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions; their learning instructs, and their subtlety surprises; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought and, though he sometimes admires, is seldom pleased.

No crime is so great as daring to excel.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

Rich men without convictions are more dangerous in modern society than poor women without chastity.