To laugh often and much ... this is to have succeeded. Probably not from Emerson: here's the full quotation and the story.
Ralph Waldo EmersonNot always can flowers, pearls, poetry, protestations, nor even home in another heart, content the awful soul that dwells in clay.
Ralph Waldo EmersonThe history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.
Ralph Waldo Emerson