Ralph Waldo Emerson

The only gift is a portion of thyself.

Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

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

There is no luck in literary reputation. They who make up the final verdict upon every book are not the partial and noisy readers of the hour when it appears; but a court as of angels, a public not to be bribed, not to be entreated, and not to be overawed, decides upon every man’s title to fame.

Men over forty are no judges of a book written in a new spirit.

Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests, and mines, and stone quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.

Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.

No one can cheat you out of ultimate success but yourself.

The late M. Venizelos observed that in all her wars Englandhe should have said Britain, of coursealways wins one battlethe last.

Never, my dear Sir, do you take it into your head that I do not love you; you may settle yourself in full confidence both of my love and my esteem; I love you as a kind man, I value you as a worthy man, and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety.

It’s powerful to have strong men but what does that strength mean?

It seems to me that the god that is commonly worshipped in civilized countries is not at all divine, though he bears a divine name, but is the overwhelming authority and respectability of mankind combined. Men reverence one another, not yet God.

All men’s souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.

All those moments are alive in us today. We may not visit them anymore, very often, but we carry them in our DNA, our blood, our bones; informing the breadth and beauty of who we now are; our lesson to be lived.

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.

Extended empires are like expanded gold, exchanging solid strength for feeble splendor.

A jest often decides matters of importance more effectual and happily than seriousness.

The revelation of Thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.

Men who for truth and honor’s sake stand fast and suffer long. Brave men who work while others sleep. Who dare while others fly.They build a nation’s pillars deep. And lift them to the sky.