Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science.

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

As we are, so we associate. The good, by affinity, seek the good; the vile, by affinity, the vile. Thus of their own volition, souls proceed into Heaven, into Hell.

Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant.

Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, else it is none.

It is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under other circumstances.

All mankind love a lover.

The vegetable life does not content itself with casting from the flower or the tree a single seed, but it fills the air and earth with a prodigality of seeds, that, if thousands perish, thousands may plant themselves, that hundreds may come up, that tens may live to maturity; that, at least one may replace the parent.

A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life: he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days.

Life is our dictionary.

Wherever the invitation of men or your own occasions lead you, speak the very truth, as your life and conscience teach it, and cheer the waiting, fainting hearts of men with new hope and new revelation.