Quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson

A sufficient and sure method of civilization is in the influence of good women.

Wherever snow falls, or water flows, or birds fly, wherever day and night meet in twilight, wherever the blue heaven is hung by clouds, or sown with stars, wherever are forms with transparent boundaries, wherever are outlets into celestial space, wherever is danger, and awe, and love, there is Beauty, plenteous as rain, shed for thee, and though thou shouldest walk the world over, thou shalt not be able to find a condition inopportune or ignoble.

Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.

Character is that which can do without success.

We mark with light in the memory the few interviews we have had with souls that made our souls wiser, that spoke what we thought, that told us what we knew, that gave us leave to be what we inly are.

One of the most beautiful compensations in life is that no person can help another without helping themselves

Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not.

Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.

All the mistakes I make arise from forsaking my own station and trying to see the object from another person's point of view.

The secret of fortune is joy in our hands. Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide. Him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him because he did not need it.

Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.

The highest revelation is that God is in every man.