"Genius is the power to labor better..." - Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Plato says that the punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is, to live under the government of worse men; and the like regret is suggested to all the auditors, as the penalty of abstaining to speak,--that they shall hear worse orators than themselves.”

“New arts destroy the old.”

“Every ship that comes to America got its chart from Columbus.”

“Genius: the superhuman in man.”

“Let us leave to the brain what belongs to it, and agree that the work of the men of genius is of the superhuman, the offspring of man.”

“Let the minor genius go his light way and enjoy his life - the great nature cannot so live, he is never really in holiday mood, even though he often plucks flowers by the wayside and ties them into knots and garlands like little children and lays out on a sunny morning.”

“To write without pay until somebody offers pay. If nobody offers pay within three years, the candidate may look upon this circumstance with the most implicit confidence as the sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for.”

“Three rules: I do not eat too much; I do not worry too much; and, if I do my best, I believe that what happens, happens for the best.”

“(While accepting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award) I've been thinking about why you have to get famous to get an award for helping other people...If your name is John Doe, and you work night and day doing things for your helpless neighbors, what you get for your effort is tired. So, Mr. and Mrs. Doe, and all of you who give of yourselves, to those who carry too big a burden to make it on their own, I want you to reach out and take your share of this...Because if I have earned it, so too have you.”