Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thoughts come into our minds by avenues which we never left open, and thoughts go out of our minds through avenues which we never voluntarily opened.

No matter how you seem to fatten on a crime, there can never be good for the bee which is bad for the hive.

In good company, the individuals merge their egotism into a social soul exactly co-extensive with the several consciousnesses there present.

When some external event raises your spirits and you think good days are preparing for you, do not believe it. It can never be so. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.

The basis of good manners is self-reliance. Necessity is the law of all who are not self-possessed.

What is indispensable to inspiration? ...sound sleep and the provocation of a good book or a companion.

Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this.

Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well.

The less government we have the better.

The antidote to this abuse of formal Government, is, the influence of private character, the growth of the Individual.

Government exists to defend the weak and the poor and the injured party; the rich and the strong can better take care of themselves.

The evils of popular government appear greater than they are; there is compensation for them in spirit and energy it awakens.

Personal rights, universally the same, demand a government framed on the ratio of the census: property demands a government framedon the ratio of owners and of owning.

Government has been a fossil: it should be a plant.

The things taught in schools & colleges are not an education but the means of education.

Death comes to all, but great achievements build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold.

Every great achievement is the victory of a flaming heart.

All great men come out of the middle classes.

He who would be a great soul in the future, must be a great soul now.

A great man stands on God. A small man stands on a great man.

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.

There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening we shall hear the right word.

Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting some on yourself.

Allow yourself to trust joy and embrace it. You will find you dance with everything.