The secret of success in society is a certain heartiness and sympathy. A man who is not happy in company, cannot find any word in his memory that will fit the occasion; all his information is a little impertinent. A man who is happy there, finds in every turn of the conversation occasions for the introduction of what he has to say. The favorites of society are able men, and of more spirit than wit, who have no uncomfortable egotism, but who exactly fill the hour and the company, contended and contenting.
Ralph Waldo EmersonGenius is the power to labor better and more availably. Deserve thy genius: exalt it.
Ralph Waldo EmersonI grieve that grief can teach me nothing, nor carry me one step into real nature.
Ralph Waldo EmersonWisdom is not found with those who dwell at their ease; rather nature, when she adds brain, adds difficulty.
Ralph Waldo EmersonThere is also something excellent in every audience,--the capacity of virtue. They are ready to be beatified.
Ralph Waldo EmersonSkepticism is unbelief in cause and effect. A man does not see, that, as he eats, so he thinks: as he deals, so he is, and so he appears; he does not see that his son is the son of his thoughts and of his actions; that fortunes are not exceptions but fruits; that relation and connection are not somewhere and sometimes, but everywhere and always; no miscellany, no exemption, no anomaly,--but method, and an even web; and what comes out, that was put in.
Ralph Waldo Emerson