Ralph Waldo Emerson

Throb thine with Nature's throbbing breast.

Are you not scared by seeing that the gypsies are more attractive to us than the apostles?

Raphael paints wisdom, Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it.

Life is too short to waste . . . 'Twill soon be dark; Up! mind thine own aim, and God speed the mark!

Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.

Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret.

Good bye, proud world! I'm going home; Thou art not my friend, and I'm not thine

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.

A fly is as untamable as a hyena.

Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated about among men of thought.

And truly it demands something god like in him who has cast off the common motives of humanity, and has ventured to trust himself for a taskmaster. High be his heart, faithful his will, clear his sight, that he may in good earnest be doctrine, society, law, to himself, that a simple purpose may be to him as strong as iron necessity is to others!

Never self-possessed, or prudent, love is all abandonment.

God made yeast, as well as dough, and loves fermentation just as dearly as he loves vegetation.

Most people, who have quit smoking, have had at least one unsuccessful try in the past. It is not important how many times you try to quit. The only important thing is, that eventually you stay quit

In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise.

The most active lives have so much routine as to preclude progress almost equally with the most inactive.

The hard soil and four months of snow make the inhabitants of the northern temperate zone wiser and abler than his fellow who enjoys the fixed smile of the tropics.

Guard your own spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds.

Nations have lost their old omnipotence; the patriotic tiedoes not hold. Nations are getting obsolete, we go and live where we will.

A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages

Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them.