Society is frivolous, and shreds its day into scraps, its conversation into ceremonies and escapes.
Ralph Waldo EmersonShall we then judge a country by the majority, or by the minority? By the minority, surely. 'Tis pedantry to estimate nations by the census, or by square miles of land, or other than by their importance to the mind of the time.
Ralph Waldo EmersonFaith and love are apt to be spasmodic in the best minds: Men live on the brink of mysteries and harmonies into which yet they never enter, and with their hand on the doorlatch they die outside.
Ralph Waldo Emerson