Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions.

Every man believes that he has greater possibilities.

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

For the resolute and determined, there is time and opportunity.

From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things, and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all.

No man can have society upon his own terms.

O Lord! Unhappy is the man whom man can make unhappy.

Two may talk and one may hear, but three cannot take part in a conversation of the most sincere and searching sort.

Nothing is beneath you if it is in the direction of your life.

Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. Many will read the book before one thinks of quoting a passage. As soon as he has done this, that line will be quoted east and west.

Nature is what you may do. There is much you may not do.

Nature has made up her mind that what cannot defend itself shall not be defended.

Condense some daily experience into a glowing symbol and an audience is electrified.

Perpetual modernism is the measure of merit in every work of art.

Commerce is a game of skill which everyone cannot play and few can play well.

Every vice is only an exaggeration of a necessary and virtuous function.

There can be no high civility without a deep morality, though it may not always call itself by that name.

The civility of no race can be perfect whilst another race is degraded.

The astronomers said, 'Give us matter and a little motion and we will construct the universe. It is not enough that we should have matter, we must also have a single impulse, one shove to launch the mass and generate the harmony of the centrifugal and centripetal forces.' ... There is no end to the consequences of the act. That famous aboriginal push propagates itself through all the balls of the system, and through every atom of every ball.

The greatest discoveries are those that shed light unto ourselves.

A few strong instincts and a few plain rules suffice us