"But the mark of American merit in..." - Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous or when they are most luxurious-they are conservatives after dinner.”

“The man is only half himself, the other half is his expression.”

“Nothing can work damage to me except myself; the harm that I sustain I carry about with me and never am a real sufferer except by my own fault.”

“For true poetry, complete poetry, consists in the harmony of contraries. Hence, it is time to say aloud--and it is here above allthat exceptions prove the rule--that everything that exists in nature exists in art.”

“I made art a philosophy, and philosophy an art.”

“I showed the grown ups my maasterpiece, andI asked them if my drawing scared them. They answered why be scared of a hat? My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.”

“I think all Americans should be hopeful, and try to be optimistic.”

“In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world.”

“It is well known, that on the Ohio, and in many parts of America further north, tusks, grinders, and skeletons of unparalleled magnitude are found in great numbers, some lying on the surface of the earth, and some a little below it ... But to whatever animal we ascribe these remains, it is certain that such a one has existed in America, and that it has been the largest of all terrestrial beings.”