We infer the spirit of the nation in great measure from the language, which is a sort of monument, to which each forcible individual in a course of many hundred years has contributed a stone.
Ralph Waldo EmersonIt is not an arbitrary "decree of God," but in the nature of man, that a veil shuts down on the facts of to-morrow; for the soul will not have us read any other cipher than that of cause and effect. By this veil, which curtains events, it instructs the children of men to live in to-day.
Ralph Waldo EmersonThen climate is a great impediment to idle persons; we often resolve to give up the care of the weather, but still we regard the clouds and the rain.
Ralph Waldo EmersonBooks are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst...They are for nothing but to inspire.
Ralph Waldo Emerson