Much of the wisdom of the world is not wisdom, and the most illuminated class of men are no doubt superior to literary fame, and are not writers.
Ralph Waldo EmersonA right rule for a club would be,-Admit no man whose presence excludes any one topic.
Ralph Waldo EmersonA man finds room in the few square inches of the face for the traits of all his ancestors; for the expression of all his history, and his wants.
Ralph Waldo EmersonIn the Greek cities, it was reckoned profane, that any person should pretend a property in a work of art, which belonged to all who could behold it.
Ralph Waldo EmersonWise men are not wise at all hours, and will speak five times from their taste or their humor, to once from their reason.
Ralph Waldo EmersonAt the gates of the forest, the surprised man of the world is forced to leave his city estimates of great and small, wise and foolish. The knapsack of custom falls off his back with the first step he makes into these precincts. Here is sanctity which shames our religions, and reality which discredits our heroes. Here we find Nature to be the circumstance which dwarfs every other circumstance, and judges like a god all men that come to her.
Ralph Waldo Emerson