Ralph Waldo Emerson

One lesson we learn early, that in spite of seeming difference, men are all of one pattern. We readily assume this with our mates, and are disappointed and angry if we find that we are premature, and that their watches are slower than ours. In fact, the only sin which we never forgive in each other is difference of opinion.

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,Here once the embattled farmers stood,And fired the shot heard round the world.

Every thought which genius and piety throw into the world alters the world.

We are taught by great actions that the universe is the property of every individual in it.

Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others.

Trust your instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

My way of joking is to tell the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world.

Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body, and it addeth no small reverence to men’s manners and actions if they be not altogether open. Therefore set it down: That a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral.

The dead should be judged like criminals, impartially, but they should be allowed the benefit of the doubt.

Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

I dip my pen in the blackest ink, because I am not afraid of falling into my inkpot.

Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. Let them be your only diet, drink, and botanical medicines.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can let alone.

Does he council you better who bids you, Money, by right means, if you can: but by any means, make money?

You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she’ll be constantly running back.

Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.

Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.

I tell you there isn’t a thing under the sun that needs to be done at all, but what a man can do better than a woman, unless it’s bearing children, and they do that in a poor make-shift way; it had better been left to the men.

The very impossibility in which I find myself to prove that God is not, discovers to me his existence.

If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.

Discord is the great ill of mankind; and tolerance is the only remedy for it.