"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Always do what you are afraid to do."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self Reliance)

"Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The earth laughs in flowers."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It is not the length of life, but the depth."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (The Complete Prose Works Of Ralph Waldo Emerson)

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A friend is one before whom I may think aloud."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Make the most of yourself....for that is all there is of you."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Life is a journey, not a destination."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The only way to have a friend is to be one."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Every artist was first an amateur. "
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In my walks, every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Nothing is more sacred than the integrity of your own mind."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson)

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self Reliance)

"Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others; To leave the world a little bit better, whether by healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life had breathed easier because you have lived, This is to have succeeded."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson)

"To be great is to be misunderstood. "
— Ralph Waldo Emerson