Ralph Waldo Emerson

Valor consists in the power of self recovery.

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

The rich mind lies in the sun and sleeps, and is Nature.

The history of persecution is a history of endeavors to cheat nature, to make water run up hill, to twist a rope of sand.

Who shall set a limit to the influence of a human being?

Some natures are too good to be spoiled by praise.

We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes.

What is the hardest task in the world? To think.

If a man sits down to think, he is immediately asked if he has a headache.

Every revolution was first a thought in one man's mind.

Spring still makes spring in the mind_x000D_ _x000D_ When sixty years are told:_x000D_ _x000D_ Love wakes anew this throbbing heart,_x000D_ _x000D_ And we are never old_x000D_ _x000D_ Over the winter glaciers_x000D_ _x000D_ I see the summer glow_x000D_ _x000D_ And through the wind-piled snowdrift_x000D_ _x000D_ The warm rosebuds below.

I please myself with the graces of the winter scenery, and believe that we are as much touched by it as by the genial influences of summer.

The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius; for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character.

Preaching is the expression of moral sentiments applied to the duties of life.

Language is a city, to the building of which every human being brought a stone; yet he is no more to be credited with the grand result than the acaleph which adds a cell to the coral reef which is the basis of the continent.

An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.

I do not hesitate to read. all good books in translations. What is really best in any book is translatable-any real insight or broad human sentiment.

Some thoughts always find us young, and keep us so. Such a thought is the love of the universal and eternal beauty.

The only thing grief has taught me is to know how shallow it is.

The reward of commercial civilization is the ability to consume a never-ending array of products.There are limits beyond which commodities cannot be multiplied without preventing their consumers from affirming themselves through the exercise of their personal freedom.When market dependence reaches a certain threshold it deprives people of their power to live creatively and to act autonomously. And precisely because this new impotence is so deeply experienced, it is expressed with difficulty.

The moment we indulge our affections, the earth is metamorphosed.