RALPH WALDO EMERSON

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

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

"Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen."

"A great man is always willing to be little."

"Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great."

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

"Love, and you shall be loved."

"Every wall is a door."

"Envy is ignorance, Imitation is Suicide."

"Be not the slave of your own past - plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old."

"You are constantly invited to be what you are."

"There is one other reason for dressing well, namely that dogs respect it, and will not attack you in good clothes."

"Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self."

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not."

"The only way to have a friend is to be one."

"Let us be silent, that we may hear the whisper of God."

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

"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."

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

"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air."

"Fear always springs from ignorance."

"Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted."

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

"For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness."

"Beauty without expression is boring."

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."

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

"Some books leave us free and some books make us free."

"Every artist was first an amateur."

"Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes."

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."

"Sorrow looks back, Worry looks around, Faith looks up."

"To be great is to be misunderstood."

"It is easy to live for others, everybody does. I call on you to live for yourself."

"Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always sings."

"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be."

"Life is short, but there is always time enough for courtesy."

"Life is a journey, not a destination."

"The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions."

"Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it."

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

"Nature and Books belong to the eyes that see them."

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."

"The years teach much the days never know."

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

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