Ralph Waldo Emerson

Man was born to be rich, or grow rich by use of his faculties, by the union of thought with nature. Property is an intellectual production. The game requires coolness, right reasoning, promptness, and patience in the players.

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.

The walking of Man is falling forwards.

A sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.

The line of beauty is the line of perfect economy.

We rail at trade, but the historian of the world will see that it was the principle of liberty; that it settled America, and destroyed feudalism, and made peace and keeps peace; that it will abolish slavery.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

Work with some men is as besetting a sin as idleness.

Some men are born to own, and can animate all their possessions. Others cannot: their owning is not graceful; seems to be a compromise of their character: they seem to steal their own dividends.

The religion that is afraid of science dishonors God and commits suicide.

Round numbers are always false.

Not to be provok’d is best: But if mov’d, never correct till the Fume is spent; For every Stroke our Fury strikes, is sure to hit our selves at last.

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

Is not every man sometimes a radical in politics? Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner, or before taking their rest; when they are sick, or aged. In the morning, or when their intellect or their conscience has been aroused; when they hear music, or when they read poetry, they are radicals.

I have been complimented many times and they always embarrass me; I always feel that they have not said enough.

It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man’s judgment.

No facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an endless seeker, with no past at my back.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: “I’m with you kid. Let’s go.”

Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you who you’ll turn out to be.

Avoid inquisitive persons, for they are sure to be gossips, their ears are open to hear, but they will not keep what is entrusted to them.

Beauty is the pilot of the young soul.