The whole of what we know is a system of compensations. Each suffering is rewarded; each sacrifice is made up; every debt is paid. - Ralph Waldo Emerson. View more images...

Four snakes gliding up and down a hollow for no purpose that I could see -- not to eat, not for love, but only gliding. - Ralph Waldo Emerson. View more images...

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life. - Ralph Waldo Emerson. View more images...

Whatever you do, you need courage. ... To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage which a soldier needs. - Ralph Waldo Emerson. View more images...

Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession... Do that which is assigned to you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much. - Ralph Waldo Emerson. View more images...

Love, which is the essence of God, is not for levity, but for the total worth of man. - Ralph Waldo Emerson. View more images...

A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends. - Ralph Waldo Emerson. View more images...

We take care of our health, we lay up money, we make our roof tight and our clothing sufficient, but who provides wisely that he shall not be wanting in the best property of all-friends. - Ralph Waldo Emerson. View more images...

Character is what can do without success. - Ralph Waldo Emerson. View more images...

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. - Ralph Waldo Emerson. View more images...

There is no way to success in art but to take off your coat, grind paint, and work like a digger on the railroad, all day and every day. - Ralph Waldo Emerson. View more images...

Though love repine, and reason chafe, There came a voice without reply, - 'Tis man's perdition to be safe When for the truth he ought to die - Ralph Waldo Emerson. View more images...

The life of man is the true romance, which when it is valiantly conduced, will yield the imagination a higher joy than any fiction. - Ralph Waldo Emerson. View more images...

He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, while he who has one enemy shall meet him everywhere. - Ralph Waldo Emerson. View more images...

It is not length of life, but depth of life. - Ralph Waldo Emerson. View more images...