Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tis a rule of manners to avoid exaggeration.

In failing circumstances no one can be relied on to keep their integrity.

The great majority of men are bundles of beginnings.

The line of beauty is the line of perfect economy.

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

Sir, that all who are happy, are equally happy, is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisfied, but not equally happy. Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness.

Remember, when life’s path is steep, to keep your mind even.

Let a man find himself, in distinction from others, on top of two wheels with a chain – at least in a poor country like Russia – and his vanity begins to swell out like his tires. In America it takes an automobile to produce this effect.

No one ever became great by imitation.

Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society.

In the arts of life man invents nothing; but in the arts of death he outdoes Nature herself, and produces by chemistry and machinery all the slaughter of plague, pestilence, and famine.

We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.

When the righteous man truth away from his righteousness that he hath committed and doeth that which is neither quite lawful nor quite right, he will generally be found to have gained in amiability what he has lost in holiness.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.

To solve a problem or to reach a goal, you don’t need to know all the answers in advance. But you must have a clear idea of the problem or the goal you want to reach.

To keep your secret is wisdom, but to expect others to keep it is folly.

Property is an intellectual production. The game requires coolness, right reasoning, promptness, and patience in the players.

Youth is unduly busy with pampering the outer person.

Though I can make my extravaganzas appear credible, I cannot make the truth appear so.