Ralph Waldo Emerson

For every benefit you receive a tax is levied.

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

Truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men.

Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience.

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

Make yourself necessary to somebody.

The natural term of the affection of the human animal for its offspring is six years.

The cross of the Legion of Honor has been conferred on me. However, few escape that distinction.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.

Shall we then judge a country by the majority, or by the minority? By the minority, surely. ‘Tis pedantry to estimate nations by the census, or by square miles of land, or other than by their importance to the mind of the time.

When you introduce a moral lesson, let it be brief.

There is nothing so unthinkable as thought, unless it be the entire absence of thought.

The torments of martyrdom are probably most keenly felt by the bystanders.

He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father’s wisdom than he who has a great deal left to him owes to his father’s care.

The next best thing to saying a good thing yourself, is to quote one.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

There is no thought in any mind, but it quickly tends to convert itself into power.

Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.

Not even the Devil can call a woman “Slut” if he is not able to make her fall in love.