Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are too civil to books. For a few golden sentences we will turn over and actually read a volume of four or five hundred pages.

A man must thank his defects, and stand in some terror of his talents.

Culture opens the sense of beauty.

Philanthropic and religious bodies do not commonly make their executive officers out of saints.

But whoso is heroic must find crises to try his edge. Human virtue demands her champions and martyrs, and the trial of persecution always proceeds.

O friend, never strike sail to a fear!

The great will not condescend to take anything seriously.

When the spirit is not master of the world, then it is its dupe.

The greatest man in history was the poorest.

Poverty consist in feeling poor.

The victories of character are instant, and victories for all.

If we live truly, we shall see truly.

Each man is a hero and an oracle to somebody.

If we follow the truth, it will bring us out safe at last.

This very certain that each man carries in his eye the exact indication of his rank in the immense scale of men, and we are always learning to read it. A complete man should need no auxiliaries to his personal presence.

The most dangerous thing is illusion.

Every individual strives to grow and exclude, to the extremities of the universe, and to impose the law of its being on every other creature.

Men achieve a certain greatness unawares when working to another aim.

He is great who is what he is from nature, and who never reminds us of others.

A great man stands on God. A small man on a great man.

The only sin that we never forgive in each other is a difference in opinion.