Great causes are never tried on their merits; but the cause is reduced to particulars to suit the size of the partizans, and the contention is ever hottest on minor matters.
Ralph Waldo EmersonA man is but a little thing in the midst of the objects of nature, yet, by the moral quality radiating from his countenance, he may abolish all considerations of magnitude, and in his manners equal the majesty of the world.
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 EmersonThe pleasure of eloquence is in greatest part owing often to the stimulus of the occasion which produces it- - to the magic of sympathy, which exalts the feeling of each by radiating on him the feeling of all.
Ralph Waldo Emerson