Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you shoot at a king you must kill him.

Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good.

There are books which take rank in your life with parents and lovers and passionate experiences, so medicinal, so stringent, so revolutionary, so authoritative.

He presents me with what is always an acceptable gift who brings me news of a great thought before unknown. He enriches me without impoverishing himself.

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.

The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode.

Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt. Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.

Whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can commit the least act of injustice against the obscurest individual without having to pay the penalty for it.

It is by the goodness of God that we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

Amidst all the clutter, beyond all the obstacles, aside from all the static, are the goals set. Put your head down, do the best job possible, let the flak pass, and work towards those goals.

There are no have-to’s, just choices.

We may not pay Satan reverence, for that would be indiscreet, but we can at least respect his talents.

Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.

In traveling, a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.

Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.

Always play like an underdog.

The great danger of conversion in all ages has been that when the religion of the high mind is offered to the lower mind, the lower mind, feeling its fascination without understanding it, and being incapable of rising to it, drags it down to its level by degrading it.

The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.

In statesmanship get the formalities right, never mind about the moralities.

We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.