583 quotes
To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.
Journals (1822)
Fine manners need the support of fine manners in others.
The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.
Society and Solitude (1870)
If you tax too high, the revenue will yield nothing.
The only way to have a good friend is to be one.
Essays (1841)
Poetry comes nearer to vital truth than history.
Nature (1836)
A good indignation brings out all one's powers.
Journals (1822)
Science does not know its debt to imagination.
Letters and Social Aims (1876)
Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices.
Letters and Social Aims (1876)
Everything intercepts us from ourselves.
Journals (1822)
Put God in your debt. Every stroke shall be repaid. The longer the payment is withholden, the better for you; for compound interest on compound interest is the rate and usage of this exchequer.
O friend, never strike sail to a fear! Come into port greatly, or sail with God the seas.
The key to the period appeared to be that the mind had become aware of itself. Men grew reflective and intellectual. There was a new consciousness.
Life and Letters in New England (1867)
The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.
Journals (1822)
What strength belongs to every plant and animal in nature. The tree or the brook has no duplicity, no pretentiousness, no show. It is, with all its might and main, what it is, and makes one and the same impression and effect at all times.
The Natural History of Intellect, and Other Papers (1893)
The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men round to his opinion twenty years later.
The highest compact we can make with our fellow, is, — "Let there be truth between us two forevermore".
It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, — always do what you are afraid to do.
It is the quality of the moment, not the number of days, or events, or of actors, that imports.
Poetry teaches the enormous force of a few words, and, in proportion to the inspiration, checks loquacity.
Parnassus (1874)