Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."

"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."

"What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you."

"What can we see, read, acquire, but ourselves. Take the book, my friend, and read your eyes out, you will never find there what I find."

"Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures."

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

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

"Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art."

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

"What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say."

"Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood."

"Books are for nothing but to inspire"

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

"None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone."

"The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil. It is not for you to choose what he shall know, what he shall do. It is chosen and foreordained and he only holds the key to his own secret."

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

"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."

"Tis the good reader that makes the good book."

"Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakenly meant for his ear; the profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader; the profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until it is discovered by an equal mind and heart."

"The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without."