Ralph Waldo Emerson

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.

The great majority of men are bundles of beginnings.

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough.

It is not length of life, but depth of life.

There are no days in life so memorable as those which vibrate to some stroke of the imagination.

Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it. We solicitously and apologetically caress and celebrate him, because he held on his way and scorned our disapprobation. The gods loved him because men hated him.

The ancients recommended us to sacrifice to the Graces, but Milton sacrificed to the Devil.

We must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.

The Public is merely a multiplied “me”.

Softness has such a power to it. When you choose to soften into something, it relaxes, opens, tension releases. Stuck energy flows like blood coursing through veins, bringing much needed oxygen. Life force and warmth enters, connection is rekindled. Find the trust you need to allow softness in; it really is healing.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

Success must include two things: the development of an individual to his utmost potentiality and a contribution of some kind to one’s world.

I was young and foolish then; now I am old and foolisher.

If you weren’t such a great man, you’d be a terrible bore.

We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body.

Wealth is in applications of mind to nature; and the art of getting rich consists not in industry, much less in saving, but in a better order, in timeliness, in being at the right spot.

To be good is noble, but to teach others how to be good is nobler and less trouble.

Our passions do not live apart in locked chambers but dress in their small wardrobe of notions, bring their provisions to a common table and mess together, feeding out of the common store according to their appetite.

The walking of Man is falling forwards.

For many years I was a self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rainstorms and did my duty faithfully, though I never received payment for it.