Ralph Waldo Emerson

As soon as a child has left the room his strewn toys become affecting.

God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please-you can never have both.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

Judge of your natural character by what you do in dreams.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end, which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire.

A certain awkwardness marks the use of borrowed thoughts; but as soon as we have learned what to do with them, they become our own.

If I cannot brag of knowing something, then I brag of not knowing it; at any rate, brag.

Be true to your own act and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant to break the monotony of a decorous age.

Adhere to your own act, and congratulate yourself if you have done something strange and extravagant, and broken the monotony of a decorous age.