Ralph Waldo Emerson

Knowledge comes by eyes always open and working hands; and there is no knowledge that is not power.

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

Preaching is the expression of moral sentiments applied to the duties of life.

Fate, then, is a name for facts not yet passed under the fire of thought; for causes which are unpenetrated.

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,Here once the embattled farmers stood,And fired the shot heard round the world.

The first wealth is health.

To be innocent is to be not guilty; but to be virtuous is to overcome our evil inclinations.

It is better to be frightened now than killed hereafter

I showed my appreciation of my native land in the usual Irish way: by getting out of it as soon as I possibly could.

We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.

Patience and diligence, like faith, remove mountains.

It does not need that a poem should be long. Every word was once a poem. Every new relationship is a new word.

I enjoy convalescence. It is the part that makes the illness worth while.

The presence of a noble nature, generous in its wishes, ardent in its charity, changes the lights for us: we begin to see things again in their larger, quieter masses, and to believe that we too can be seen and judged in the wholeness of our character.

Good breeding, a union of kindness and independence.

Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial “we.”

I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.

Few women, I fear, have had such reason as I have to think the long sad years of youth were worth living for the sake of middle age.

Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.

Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone.

There is only one duty, only one safe course, and that is to try to be right.