We fill the hands and nurseries of our children with all manner of dolls, drums and horses, withdrawing their eyes from the plain face and... Nature, the sun and moon, the animals, the water and stones, which should be their toys.
Ralph Waldo EmersonEvery revolution was first a thought in one man's mind; and when the same thought occurs to another man, it is the key to that era.
Ralph Waldo EmersonThere is nothing settled in manners, but the laws of behavior yield to the energy of the individual.
Ralph Waldo EmersonMy good hoe as it bites the ground revenges my wrongs, and I have less lust to bite my enemies. In the smoothing the rough hillocks, I smooth my temper.
Ralph Waldo EmersonA man cannot free himself by any self-denying ordinances, neither by water nor potatoes, nor by violent possibilities, by refusing to swear, refusing to pay taxes, by going to jail, or by taking another man's crops or squatting on his land. By none of these ways can he free himself; no, nor by paying his debts with money; only by obedience to his own genius.
Ralph Waldo Emerson