Quotes on American Scholar

If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.

Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst...They are for nothing but to inspire.

It is one light which beams out of a thousand stars. It is one soul which animates all men.

He then learns that in going down into the secrets of his own mind, he has descended into the secrets of all minds.

The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul

We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds... A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men.

Meek young men grow up in libraries.

I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.

The world is his who can see through its pretension.

There is creative reading as well as creative writing.

The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class - it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity.

Not he is great who can alter matter, but he who can alter my state of mind.

Fear always springs from ignorance.