Society is infected with rude, cynical, restless, and frivolous persons who prey upon the rest, and whom no public opinion concentrated into good manners, forms accepted by the sense of all, can reach; the contradictors and railers at public and private tables, who are like terriers, who conceive it the duty of a dog of honor to growl at any passer-by, and do the honors of the house by barking him out of sight.
Ralph Waldo EmersonGive a boy address and accomplishments and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes where he goes.
Ralph Waldo EmersonMen such as they are, very naturally seek money or power; and power because it is as good as money.
Ralph Waldo Emerson