Ralph Waldo Emerson

People destined to meet will do so, apparently by chance, at precisely the right moment.

This is my wish for you: Comfort on difficult days, smiles when sadness intrudes, rainbows to follow the clouds, laughter to kiss your lips, sunsets to warm your heart, hugs when spirits sag, beauty for your eyes to see, friendships to brighten your being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage to know yourself, patience to accept the truth, Love to complete your life.

The best lightning rod for your protection is your own spine.

The eyes indicate the antiquity of the soul.

Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.

It is a luxury to be understood.

Eyes...They speak all languages.

Solitude is impractical and yet society is fatal.

Sorrow looks back, Worry looks around, Faith looks up

The sinew and heart of man seem to be drawn out, and we are become timorous desponding whimperers. We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death, and afraid of each other.

The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.

My life is not an apology, but a life. It is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady.

At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closet door and say,—'Come out unto us.' But keep thy state; come not into their confusion. The power men possess to annoy me I give them by a weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through my act.

When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.

There is more in every person's soul than we think.

though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.

Go forth into the busy world and love it. Interest yourself in its life, mingle kindly with its joys and sorrows.

We mark with light in the memory the few interviews we have had with souls that made our souls wiser, that spoke what we thought, that told us what we knew, that gave us leave to be what we inly are.

Let the soul be assured that somewhere in the universe it should rejoin its friend, and it would be content and cheerful alone for a thousand years.

Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always sings.

Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not.