If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him w... - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution; the only wrong is what is against it."

"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."

"Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul. Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is separate from us, all which Philosophy distinguishes as the 'Not Me,' that is, both nature and art, all other men and my own body, must be ranked under this name, 'Nature.'"

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

"Pictures must not be too picturesque."