Ralph Waldo Emerson

We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

There is a crack in everything God has made.

Half a man’s wisdom goes with his courage.

The man of genius inspires us with a boundless confidence in our own powers.

The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.

The life of man is the true romance, which when it is valiantly conduced, will yield the imagination a higher joy than any fiction.

The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.

I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.

It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

No just cause is futile, even if it’s lost, if it helps make the future better than the past.

A broken heart is a very pleasant complaint for a man in London if he has a comfortable income.

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.

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?

If God wants us to do a thing, he should make his wishes sufficiently clear. Sensible people will wait till he has done this before paying much attention to him.

Excess in Apparel is another costly Folly. The very Trimming of the vain World would cloath all the naked one.

Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.

Slavery it is that makes slavery; freedom, freedom. The slavery of women happened when the men were slaves of kings.

Pride is seldom delicate; it will please itself with very mean advantages.

It is your business when the wall next door catches fire.

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?