Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wherever work is done, victory is attained.

Life too near paralyses art.

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

The key to every man is his thought. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.

There is no daily chore so trivial that it cannot be made important by skipping it two days running.

The money men make lives after them.

Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest.

Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.

A picture is a poem without words.

How great, my friends, is the virtue of living upon a little!

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

The listlessness of it all, the profit off depression, the extinction of an entire species, the chlorinated connections- poisoned just to appear clean.

The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.

Forget and forgive. This is not difficult when properly understood. It means forget inconvenient duties, then forgive yourself for forgetting. By rigid practice and stern determination, it comes easy.

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

What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing about the origin and destiny of cats?

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.

Do what we can, summer will have its flies.

Our best thoughts come from others.