Ralph Waldo Emerson

The eloquent man is he who is no eloquent speaker, but who is inwardly drunk with a certain belief.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius; for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character.

Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book; a personality which, by birth and quality, is pledged to the doctrines there set forth, and which exists to see and state things so, and not otherwise.

The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low business-tone, avoids all brag, is nobody, dresses plainly, promises not at all, performs much, speaks in monosyllables, hugs his fact. He calls his employment by its lowest name, and so takes from evil tongues their sharpest weapon. His conversation clings to the weather and the news, yet he allows himself to be surprised into thought, and the unlocking of his learning and philosophy.

Religion is as effectually destroyed by bigotry as by indifference.

There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you’ll be free if you truly wish to be.

We estimate the wisdom of nations by seeing what they did with their surplus capital.

The surest poison is time.

He walked out into the cold morning asking himself this heretical question: Can you start measuring a minute at any instant you wish?

The idea of perfection always gives one a chance to talk without knowing facts.

No matter how much or how little I knew technically, I was able to get the best out of people I worked with.

Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.

It is easier to stay out than get out.

We must train hard. It’s not about denying a weakness may exist but about denying its right to persist.

Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

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

This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.

When you’ve told someone that you’ve left them a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once.

No man acquires property without acquiring with it a little arithmetic also.