He then learns that in going down into the secrets of his own mind he has descended into the secrets of all minds.

When a man meets his make, society begins.

Fear always springs from ignorance

Whatever limits us, we call Fate

Accept your genius and say what you think.

Men in all ways are better than they seem

No man ever prayed heartily without learning something.

Them meaning of good and bad, of better and worse, is simply helping or hurting.

We forget ourselves and our destinies in health, and the chief use of temporary sickness is to remind us of these concerns.

A forte always makes a foible.

‘Tis very certain that each man carries in his eye the exact indication of his rank in the immense scale of men, and we are always learning to read it. A complete man should need...

It is implied in all superior culture that a complete man would need no auxiliaries to his personal presence

I confess myself utterly at a loss in suggesting particular reforms in our ways of teaching. No discretion that can be lodged with a school-committee, with the overseers or visitors of an academy, of a...

The crowning fortune of a man is to be born to some pursuit which finds him employment and happiness, whether it be to make baskets, or broadswords, or canals, or statues, or songs.

The foremost watchman on the peak announces his news. It is the truest word ever spoken, and the phrase will be th fittest, most musical, and the unerring voice of the world for that time.

Why should I cumber myself with regrets that the receiver is not capacious? It never troubles the sun that some of his rays fall wide and vain into ungrateful space, and only a small part...

Things are pretty, graceful, rich, elegant, handsome, but, until they speak to the imagination, not yet beautiful.

In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair.

The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself.

He is a dull observer whose experience has not taught him the reality and force of magic, as well as of chemistry.

There are many eyes that can detect and honor the prudent and household virtues; there are many that can discern Genius on his starry track, though the mob is incapable; but when that love which...

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

Nothing external to you has any power over you.

God enters by a private door into each individual.

People with great gifts are easy to find, but symmetrical and balanced ones never.

A man known to us only as a celebrity in politics or in trade, gains largely in our esteem if we discover that he has some intellectual taste or skill

The two parties which divide the state, the party of Conservatism and that of Innovation, are very old, and have disputed the possession of the world ever since it was made

In the vaunted works of Art, The master-stroke is Nature’s part

Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than material force, that thoughts rule the world.

Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.

I find that the Americans have no passions, they have appetites.

The chief mourner does not always attend the funeral.

The maxim of the tyrant, ‘If you would rule the world quietly, you must keep it amused

Men’s actions are too strong for them. Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the victim and slave of his action.

The intellectual man requires a fine bait; the sots are easily amused. But everybody is drugged with his own frenzy, and the pageant marches at all hours, with music and banner and badge.

O friend, never strike sail to a fear! Come into port greatly, or sail with God the seas

What we seek we shall find; what we flee from flees from us.

The majority of men are bundles of beginnings

The longest wave is quickly lost in the sea.

There is a certain satisfaction in coming down to the lowest ground of politics, for we get rid of cant and hypocrisy.

Money is of no value; it cannot spend itself. All depends on the skill of the spender.

God enters by a private door into every individual.

All that I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.

There is something servile in the habit of seeking after a law which we must obey.

A man’s library is a sort of harem.

Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.

Half a man’s wisdom goes with his courage

The best efforts of a fine person is felt after we have left their presence.

Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts.

The earth laughs in flowers.