Spiritual force is stronger than material force; thoughts rule the world.

Better that the book should be not quite so good, and the writer better, and not himself a ridiculous contrast to all he has written.

evergreen philosophy of Idealism, springing up on American soil.

A materialist would argue that I'm a product of my circumstances. But I make my own circumstances. If I make a change in my dominant thoughts or motives, a change in my situation and surroundings will soon follow. Through my actions, I attract people and situations to match my mentality. As I am, so I act; and as I act, so I attract.

What we call obscure condition or vulgar society is that condition and society whose poetry is not yet written, but which you shall presently make as enviable and renowned as any.

Why should I vapor and play the philosopher, instead of ballasting, the best I can, this dancing balloon?

The ancestor of every action is a thought. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every revolution was first a thought in one man's mind, and when the same thought occurs to another man, it is the key to that era.

The world is upheld by the veracity of good men: they make the earth wholesome. They who lived with them found life glad and nutritious. Life is sweet and tolerable only in our belief in such society.

When an artist runs out of inspiration or a scholar wearies of books, they always have the ability to live. Character is more important than intellect. Life is primary; our thoughts about it are secondary.

The advantage of the ideal theory over the popular faith, is this, that it presents the world in precisely that view which is most desirable to the mind. It is, in fact, the view which Reason, both speculative and practical, that is, philosophy and virtue, take. For, seen in the light of thought, the world always is phenomenal; and virtue subordinates it to the mind.

If a person is constantly reading and absorbing the thoughts of others, their growth will be stunted. In order to fully develop, we need periods of solitude, self-inquiry, and recovery.