Conservatism makes no poetry, breathes no prayer, has no invention; it is all memory. Reform has no gratitude, no prudence, no husbandry.
Ralph Waldo EmersonThe great man is not convulsible or tormentable; events pass over him without much impression.
Ralph Waldo EmersonSpurious prudence, making the senses final, is the god of sots and cowards, and is the subject of all comedy. It is nature's joke, and therefore literature's. True prudence limits this sensualism by admitting the knowledge of an internal and real world.
Ralph Waldo EmersonPeople who wash much have a high mind about it, and talk down to those who wash little.
Ralph Waldo EmersonGenius is the power to labor better and more availably. Deserve thy genius: exalt it.
Ralph Waldo EmersonThe purpose of life seems to be to acquaint a man with himself and whatever science or art or course of action he engages in reacts upon and illuminates the recesses of his own mind. Thus friends seem to be only mirrors to draw out and explain to us ourselves; and that which draws us nearer our fellow man, is, that the deep Heart in one, answers the deep Heart in another, - that we find we have (a common Nature) - one life which runs through all individuals, and which is indeed Divine.
Ralph Waldo Emerson