[A]s if life were a thunder-storm wherein you can see by a flash the horizon, and then cannot see your hand.
Ralph Waldo EmersonAll history is the decline of war, though the slow decline. All that society has yet gained is mitigation; the doctrine of the right of war still remains.
Ralph Waldo EmersonSome eyes threaten like a loaded and levelled pistol, and others are as insulting as hissing or kicking; some have no more expression than blueberries, while others are as deep as a well which you can fall into.
Ralph Waldo EmersonA man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages
Ralph Waldo Emerson