Ralph Waldo Emerson

To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

To live without duties is obscene.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Two may talk and one may hear, but three cannot take part in a conversation of the most sincere and searching sort.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are as much informed of a writer’s genius by what he selects as by what he originates.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are by nature observers, and thereby learners. That is our permanent state.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are reformers in the spring and summer, but in autumn we stand by the old. Reformers in the morning, and conservers at night.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We cannot overstate our debt to the Past, but the moment has the supreme claim.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We dare not trust our wit for making our house pleasant to our friend, so we buy ice cream.

Ralph Waldo Emerson