The earth is a machine which yields almost gratuitous service to every application of intellect. Every plant is a manufacturer of soil. In the stomach of the plant development begins. The tree can draw on the whole air, the whole earth, on all the rolling main. The plant is all suction-pipe,--imbibing from the ground by its root, from the air by its leaves, with all its might.
Ralph Waldo EmersonBefore a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no more; in the leafless root there is no less.
Ralph Waldo EmersonWhen a happy person comes into the room, it is as if another candle has been lit.
Ralph Waldo EmersonPlato says that the punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is, to live under the government of worse men; and the like regret is suggested to all the auditors, as the penalty of abstaining to speak,--that they shall hear worse orators than themselves.
Ralph Waldo Emerson