Ralph Waldo Emerson

Not he is great who can alter matter, but he who can alter my state of mind.

The people are to be taken in small doses.

There is no thought in any mind, but it quickly tends to convert itself into power.

Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar.

All promise outruns performance.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

We are armed with language adequate to describe each leaf of the filed, but not to describe human character.

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.

The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.

Surely life, if it be not long, is tedious, since we are forced to call in the assistance of so many trifles to rid us of our time, of that time which never can return.

Things do not change; we change.

All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship.

Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.

Truth is a naked and open daylight.

The ear is the avenue to the heart.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

Private men, in fine, are so much their own, that, paying common dues, they are sovereigns of all the rest. Yet the public must and will be served; and they that do it well, deserve public marks of honour and respect. To do so, men must have public minds, as well as salaries; or they will serve private ends at the public cost. Government can never be well administered, but where those intrusted make conscience of well discharging their places.

I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.

Look to make your course regular, that men may know beforehand what they may expect.