Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life consists in what a person is thinking of all day.

Go oft to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path.

Science does not know its debt to imagination.

Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can.

Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves, but deal in our privacy with the last honesty and truth.

We are as much informed of a writer’s genius by what he selects as by what he originates.

City life is millions of people being lonesome together.

The world is its own magic.

Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.

All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man had taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first.

Avoid flatterers, for they are thieves in disguise.

That which is false troubles the heart, but truth brings joyous tranquility.

We do not learn by inference and deduction and the application of mathematics to philosophy, but by direct intercourse and sympathy.

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.

Be present in all things and thankful for all things.

Some men do as much begrudge others a good name, as they want one themselves: and perhaps that is the reason of it.

What is so great as friendship, let us carry with what grandeur of spirit we can. Let us be silent, — so we may hear the whisper of the gods. Let us not interfere. Who set you to cast about what you should say to the select souls, or how to say any thing to such? No matter how ingenious, no matter how graceful and bland. There are innumerable degrees of folly and wisdom, and for you to say aught is to be frivolous. Wait, and thy heart shall speak. Wait until the necessary and everlasting overpowers you, until day and night avail themselves of your lips. The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

I do not hesitate to read all good books in translations. What is really best in any book is translatable – any real insight or broad human sentiment.

What do we call love, hate, charity, revenge, humanity, forgiveness? Different results of the master impulse, the necessity of securing one’s self-approval.

The more you know the less you understand.